through each gentle snowflake
between icy layers
and stale memories
inside the wrath of each storm
that pierces the night sky
beyond the mountain of sorrow
heavy burden of earth
the lush valley grows
anyway

sitting in the beautiful sunlight of madrid, steeped in deep conversation about this dynamic, evolving world, images of the struggle pass through my wandering mind. I have seen children and youth chanting, leading, cheering, crying, hugging, suffering. I sat at the dinner table with Tunisians and Egyptians whose eyes light up when they tell me how proud they are of their people. When my Tunisian friend touched down in his country he said he felt like his head was being pulled out of a bucket of water. Like he could breathe again. My Egyptian friend joined the rally for Egypt in Madrid, proudly and loudly and said for the first time he was proud of his country.

People are rising. Women are claiming their power, youth are daring to dream and children are laughing. People are also dying and suffering and fighting for their rights. As I glue myself to my computer screen I challenge myself to use my own power and resources to support change. Real, sustained change. I know, and there is no turning back, that love, and freedom of all to love and live without oppression is what we must fight for. Today I attend meetings to send a Canadian boat with the International Freedom Flotilla Two, with the goal of BREAKING THE ILLEGAL AND INHUMAN SEIGE OF GAZA. Tomorrow, I will ask you to join me.

when you don't know
when your thoughts are filled
with the lostness of the universe
the only answer
is to ask a child

to sit and watch silently
the playful glamour of their
bountiful expression
is enough to thwart all
feelings of rebellion

i need your help
these meetings might kill me
i don't see the world the same way
i don't see borders and nations
walls and regimes
their solutions to political problems
will only bring the same
i see new power
emerging
emanating and pulsing
yet so diffuse
it's hard to connect
but i feel it, it's there
i know i'm here to push them forward
but they yank me back
at every turn
again and again
i won't let them have me
i won't let them off the hook

if there is beauty
let it crush the
miserable lonliness
of shadow

for egypt,
to the rest of us
let not one drop of her blood spilled be for nothing
let not one cry fail
to reach the ear of the world
let not one beating
or one hundred
go unnoticed
let not one woman's wail
be ignored
let not one egyptian child
cry in fear
tonight

do something different, she said
and wondered what she meant
what kiss,
what touch,
what desire
will fuel
the next motivation
the hopefulless trance

do something different

what if love flowered
in me
love myself
pure motive seeping
outward
what of loving and not longing
what of joy in every moment
not secretly wishing i could hold someone's hand
what of bliss in knowing
deeply
that to give
is to receive