armed with memorable massacres I look for peace without really knowing what it looks like
I dip in and out of a project on peace which I started around the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Christmas seems like the only time most of us truly give some thought to peace on earth. And it’s a switch from my memoir, a rockier road to navigate. The Peace Project has become large enough that I’ve decided to carve it into three pieces. First is an assemblage centred around this altered book, the product of countless hours and a fortune in blades. I envision a set for an absurdist play, made in the round, illustrating a poem without beginning or end about peace. From that poem I hope to pull a closing tercet or couplet for a sestina on war and peace. A sestina is an ambition that might only be achieved in a winter of snow days (we are off to a good start this winter!) Then there’s war. I see that poem taking the form of stage directions for my “set”. After all, what could be more absurd than war?
And always, outside, the storm rages. Pax vobiscum. Peace be with you.