If You Need Peace... Poem by Masa MbathaOpasha

If you need peace


When you sit in silence
to sift the thoughts
that crowd around
your turbulent mind
don’t let yourself
be washed away
nor disappear
into the new coming wave.
When you want peace
in a moment of crisis;
or have saturated your days
in escapes and usual pursuits,
then just sink your look
over beyond the brief horizon.
When you have tried the pleasures
of friendship, sex and money;
or have crossed a thousand paths
of earth, sea and the sky,
don’t think it shameful
to probe also for a while
the voice of your inner-self
When you realize after some time
that the thousand faces near you
have not anymore
the warmth you need
in which to shelter yourself happily,
perhaps you exchanged love
for something else,
perhaps you didn’t offer it
from your real heart.
Go back then a little bit
Right into your careless mind
Shake loose
all the bonds that bind it
True peace and true joy
are the gifts of love
from the deepest respect of others.