Palindrome

Be a raft on a quiet lake,
an island of gentleness,
the song of the morning finch.
Try to stay awake
though the nights collide like marbles
and the news is bad.
Treat your family as divine beings
though the news is bad
and the nights collide like marbles.
Try to stay awake
for the song of the morning finch.
Be an island of gentleness,
a raft on a quiet lake.

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Jeanne Rana has been published in Fresh Rain, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Feather River Bulletin, Earth’s Daughters, Edison Literary Review, Flights, and Paterson Literary Review. She received a Poets & Writers grant for her performance and workshop in 2019 for the Plumas Arts Council in Quincy, CA. She worked as a high school English and American history teacher for twenty-five years before becoming an acquisitions editor for Hunter House Publishers. Jeanne sings Sufi devotionals and runs a Sufi center with her husband.