Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 October 2011 18:35:11
There is a time
For anger
A time
For despair
A time
For love
Some emotions are easier to reach than others.
There is nothing more dignified than a people at prayer
The act of kneeling and bowing
A recognition that we are not the be all and end all of existence
The act of burning candles with eyes lifted skywards
A recognition of hope
There is nothing more obscene
Than the avoidable death of children
There is a time for death
And childhood is not it
But in the here and now the figures contradict us
And all we feel is a deep rooted anger
Can somebody tell me how many truck loads of grain
Are moved by anger?
Can somebody tell me how many bullets and bombs
Are kept out of the city by anger?
Can somebody tell me where it is written
"A child needs anger"?
There is a place for anger
And a world where the children are the forgotten victims is not it
But in the here and now with our knowledge and our facts
We despair at the hopelessness and do nothing
Can somebody tell me if it is despair that drives mothers
With their babies across deserts in search of food?
Can somebody tell me if it is despair that fills half the cities of the world
With gangs of infants scavenging and kicking and begging their way to adulthood?
Can somebody tell me where it is written
"A child needs despair"?
There is a place for despair
And a world where so much as one child breathes
Is not it
And in the here and now
We can hold out our arms
And pick up the fallen children of the globe
For this is love
And the people with the candles tell me love is a great fertilizer
And the gardeners tending their plots tell me love put food in the mouth of many
And my Muslim friends tell me
Love of Allah and their duty to those unable to feed themselves are indivisible
And my Quaker friends tell me it is impossible to love
And pull the trigger
And everywhere it told
"A child needs love"
By John Row
My dad wrote this and put it up on face book dedicating it to me when I was down at Occupy lsx and to all other people around the world coming together without violence. I am tonight dedicating it to the people of Occupy Newcastle and to Cannon Giles Fraser as well as all other people around the world coming together without violence.