Peace Now, More Than Ever Squandering time in cerebral circles debating the subtleties that mystify Like Talmudic scholars, with flowing beards and forelocks, they pour our laws and loopholes to justify their actions and far worse - their inaction They are charged with ending the violence to find a way to restructure our world for non-violence to end the quaking, shaking and fearsome changes each new day delivers to fully embrace beliefs that once drove our ancestors to seek refuge and individual freedoms Between scholars who whisper their questions so softly only God hears their pleas, and vigilant soldiers following orders to burn, maim, assault and erase any semblance of those who fight back We need peace in remote villages in our cities, cooler heads must prevail New lessons must be learned and passed on what we value now must change If we are to pass on this planet to our children's children with confidence of its survival, education, faith and a world-wide commitment to non-violence must begin today. Finding My Dad...Again For a long time, the only images I carried of my dad
were from his last weeks, days, hours, minutes, our hands clasped three, two, one...I love you Daddy He could not have weighed more than one hundred pounds jaundiced, chemo-ravaged, wounded I begged God to free him from this prison of relentless suffering Decades later, now an adult with my own family and a son who carries dad's name I came across boxes filled with pictures, telegrams, letters, even the messages on floral delivery cards It was all there, daring me to peek, scavenge, even revel, in the contents of the treasure trove buried within There was my dad wearing a "kiss the cook" apron folding Mom's homemade strawberry jam into each imperfect omelette dusting them with confectionery sugar while mugging for Mom's brownie camera Forever capturing those one-in-a-million milestone moments There was my dad shepherding our young family around Disneyland kneeling beside a creek bed where we learned to pan for gold There was my Dad lacing our skis at a winter resort three kids under seven thirty minutes later, the bunny slopes were but a frost-bitten memory There was my Dad freeing our soggy feet while Mom, God bless her, passed hot chocolate and thermal socks In a million milestone moments in boxes that had seen better days I found my Dad...again © Jill Sharon Kimmelman Jill Sharon Kimmelman is a two-time Pushcart Prize-nominee in Poetry, 2017 & 2021, and "Best of the Net" 2018. Her international publishing credits include Vita Brevis Press, Spillwords Press, Fine Lines, Better Than Starbucks Poetry & Fiction Journal, Poetic Musings, The Poet Magazine, ILA Magazine, Prolific Pulse Press, World Inkers Network, Garden of Neuro, Writing In A Woman's Voice, PLCS, Eric Publications, Writing On The Wall Global Magazine and Prolific Pulse Press, LLC. Jill's first book, "You Are The Poem", was released in November 2021. The ebook and iBook version was released in April 2022. Jill's poetry has appeared in more than 50 international literary publications. Her second book is planned for 2025. She lives in Delaware, USA with her husband, Tim Little. Jill is a proud mother of her son, Jordan Lawrence Halpern. The image above, is a disco-style frame taken in 1978, from Jill's debut book "You Are The Poem", released in paperback in 2021. Jill mentions the occasion was her beloved grandmother's surprise 60th birthday celebration. Jill has given ILA Magazine permission to feature with her poems.