Peaceful Poetry Pacific

Some computer glitch or evil spirits prevent one from accessing my poems "A Question" and "The Sword" in the online magazine Poetry Pacific, edited by Yuan Changming and Allen Yuan in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here they are in all their naked availability:

A Question

Seafoam circles the rock on the beach from both sides

and meets again like estranged lovers

clasping hands yet

who is the wave?

who gives enough push so that they meet?

what is the rock that separates them?

[cliché check]

the water is the collective spirit

the force is love, we say

the rock is self

water never relents (why should it?)

continents constantly drift

I'm not sure about any of this.

You'd think the water will always pass

still if the rock is a wall and it's thick enough,

high and large enough

the sea may never break through

in your lifetime

in the lifetimes

of rocks

of waves

of love.

A question:

What then?

The Sword

The sword

The mighty sword

The ritual

The inscription

The fabrication

The edge

Sharp

Take a life

A woman, a child

The noble sword

Don't leave home

Into your silver scabbard

And out as needed

To take a life

To protect a life

To give

To live

To die

By

A clean sword

Requires blood

Baptism

You must give it

And yourself

away

To acquire a new

Swordless you.

You can, however, read on the Poetry Pacific website a third poem entited "Growth & Theft", published there last May 5th. Here's the link:

https://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2023/05/1-poem-by-e-martin-pedersen.html

My thanks to the editors.