More on swords:

from Upaya Zen Center’s Newsletter:

Weary of War: Sadhar Khan

Greg Mortensen’s new book, Stones into Schools:a poem written by Sadhar Khan a village elder in Baharak in Northern Afghanistan in response to the authors question,”You are a busy man with enormous responsibilities, so why do you spend so much time just watching the river go by?”

You wonder why I sit,
here on this rock,
by the side of this river, doing nothing?

There is so much to be done for my people.
We have so little food,
we have so few jobs,
our fields are in shambles,
and still there are land mines everywhere.

So I am here to listen to
the quiet,
the water,
and the singing trees.

This is the sound of peace
in the presence of Allah.
After thirty years as a mujahadeen,
I have grown old from fighting.
I resent the sounds of destruction.

I am so weary of war.