with thanks to Brooke, Bailey and Ryan at #verselove on Ethical ELA yesterday. They challenged poets to create duality poems: “Alternative italics is where a poem is written with two meanings. The first meaning is the poem as a whole, and the second meaning is given to it through the italics. Most commonly, the two themes are fundamentally (or, at least, seemingly) opposed. Take two opposed ideas or concepts and make one the base. The other idea will be repeated throughout the poem and written in italics.”
Here is my take on the dual nature of the human heart…
For Day Twenty-One of National Poetry Month
What the Human Heart Craves
Peace
sweet peace
drifting earthward
as prayers float heavenward
Peace
enveloping souls
like winter coats
pulled from a magic wardrobe
thwarting winter’s chill
Peace
seeping inward
warms the heart
dwarfing all fear
Peace
is hardly for cowards.
It is
its own reward.
Peace dove. Jeff Attaway. CC BY
lit bits and pieces 
Oh to have all that peace and none of that war. Another poem I like a lot, Fran. It took my eyes to see war drift through all the stanzas (old eyes) but it is very very clever and well-done.
This site you are following is really something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – I am enjoying the creative inspiration for Poetry Month!
LikeLike
I’ve written and deleted three different comments so far, so I’ll just say thank you for a thought provoking poem. May we as a world someday know peace.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a lot of stuff wrapped in this duality for sure, Tim – thanks for letting me know it stirred thoughts this way.
LikeLike
What I love most about this poem is in itself a duality – it manages to be both highly clever and sincere. It could so easily have fallen towards the gimmicky, but the understatement of “war” through its use in the words makes sure we keep your message of peace at the forefront. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many thanks, Lainie – it’s a reminder to my own self that if I am craving peace, I cannot be waging war, even if it’s just within my own heart.
LikeLiked by 1 person