Thursday, October 3, 2013

I don't want to live in a world where (Poem)



I don't want to live in a world
Where nuclear weapons are valued higher
Than young people out of work.
Or where papers attack a son
By twisting the words of his dad.

I don't want to live in a world,
Where politicians bow down before
Bankers and Newspaper barons,
Or where freedom of speech
Only applies if you agree.

I don't want to live in a world,
Where poverty can be 'deserved'
and 'strivers' pitted against 'skivers'
Or where foodbank use growing
and for some it is heat or eat.

I don't want to live in a world
Where it's always the fault of the 'other'
Be they foreigner, poor or the government before.
Or where the suffering of anyone
Should be none of my concern.

I want to live in a world
Where people are people
Not just numbers and figures.
And where people are at the centre
Not money and power.

****************************
This wasn't the blog post I thought I was going to write today... I have one bouncing around in my head that I just can't articulate about my idea of what Church should be. I guess that will come when it is ready. But instead I found myself writing a bit of a protest poem.

Every Greenbelt I rediscover my love for Grace Petrie, a wonderful singer-songwriter with some amazingly passionate songs, and I have been listening to They Shall Not Pass a lot recently (You can listen to it here, but be aware, there is a little bit of ripe language at the start), and the last lines of verse four this poem is taken from the line in They Shall Not Past which really chimes with me.

2 comments:

  1. If you want unripened language she has a bandcamp, and all her songs are up there, for free, as they appear on the CD, so the only swearing is lyrical swearing (and They Shall Not Pass) is a clean one!

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