I rise from my nice warm bed and having made a morning drink for my beloved wife, and one for me, I run a bath. As I luxuriate in that warm bubbled water I reflect on how lucky I am.
Later, washed and dressed for the day I sit at the table and enjoy a fine meal from God’s harvest and again I reflect, and I feel… guilt!
Guilt for the small children who have no homes in which to feel safe guilt that so many of them will not eat again today.
I feel guilt for all of the poor women around the globe who will this very day give birth to babies who they will surely love but in whose having they had no choice… no one ever hears their terrified voice. Poor women beaten by poverty who still struggle to feed those children and yet too those who violate them so.
I feel guilt for all the men who cannot be made to realise that the world is not theirs to design, and at the way that some men feel their own importance trumps all other considerations, and guilt at all of the war ravaged lands.
And when I look down at the bounteous fare before me I feel only one thing – shame.
Beneath the veil of nations’ fears
Underneath their eyelids’ tears
Are secrets kept of vile misdeeds
Of many wars these are the seeds.
Adventurers sailed around the world
Their nation’s flags they then unfurled
Then raped the land of all they saw
And stole the wealth found in the core.
Independence now those countries claim
To stand alone, be proud their aim
But our ancestors fiscal curse
We robbed, pillaged and bared their purse.
So now they strike out on their own
The country’s wealth pared to the bone
They end up fighting among themselves
Supplied with weapons from dealers shelves.
This circle will go around and around
Till every human is in the ground
And you my friend when you read this tome
Will wish that you had not left home.
This land has been robbed of all that it had
Nothing is left, even for the slick and the rich
Crumbling edifices to our capitalist greed
Our world no capacity now left for its need.
There were those amongst us who fought agin this
Imprisoned in jails within our own tortured selves
Not enough of us tried to stop the horrors we saw
Now nothing is left, our charade is no more.
Your fathers all fought in such bloody campaigns
There fathers too, and there fathers before
New weapons of destructive powers previously unheard
That slaughtered the innocent in ways cruelly absurd.
Buildings left standing with all inside dead
People didn’t matter, but the real estate did
And thus the corruption swept over the Earth
We were judged by our value but not by our worth.
It angers me now as I feel guilty shame
For I didn’t do enough and that makes me as them
And for you with the mess whatever is left
There’s a world that was rich and is now so bereft.
One thing is certain, save the wealth of the land
The one crucial thing that we never did foresee
Don’t go down the pathway of war-like inventions
Create things for peace and for better intentions.
Think in these ways and you may stand a chance
It’s a message I couldn’t ever iterate to much
War and corruption lie together in bed
Growing good crops gets communities fed.
Each side at pains to prove their own case
they can always justify their way
never considering their citizens plight
Ordinary people rarely having their say.
Then the bullets start to fly
followed by mortars and tanks
apartments get blown up causing homelessness
and then there’s a run on the banks.
Foreign media all fly in
obviously to get a good scoop
around the demolished buildings
with their cameramen they all troop.
Folks entire livelihoods go up in flame
for them it has now all gone
they rely on the aid available now
it’s just the choosing which one.
The cards have been dealt
a crisis may have passed
but the so needed PEACE
is unlikely…to last.
The wind was howling and the trees were bare I called your name, there was no one there The darkness gathered all around And stillness – there was not a sound.
It was then I saw Him watching me With eyes so sad that I could see He felt the sorrow and sensed my pain He knew I’d not see you again.
He surrounded me with a kindly peace As if He knew there was no release And all my tears welled up inside Emotions that I’d tried to hide All came tumbling, tumbling down And fell like raindrops to the ground And in that moment I think I knew What He, Himself, had once been through.
I stood and looked into the night Of Him there was no longer sight And thus I left that Holy place Myself at peace, and you in grace And though my life will just go on Forever now we’ll be as one But when I go back to that place I’ll hope to see His peaceful face.
He stirred, as from an ancient sleep
To look in horror at the deep
And painful scars across the land
And He began to understand
What Man had done: what legacy
Had come to pass, had come to be
And He did think what must be done
It would need help from everyone
To make this planet whole again
He sent His Son; and his twelve men
To go in PEACE and spread the word
To say that killing is absurd.
And years have passed: it hasn’t stopped
The blood spills out: so much has dropped
It stains the land that we have claimed
Please; it’s time to be ashamed
We have to find a better way
Everyone must stand and say
Enough’s enough! It has to stop
We mustn’t waste another drop
The planet must again be whole
We need to exercise control
Beneath the skin we all are one
The boy you kill could be my son
I couldn’t cope with that. Could you?
Put down your guns; and I will to.
And we will make a better place
To house the SINGLE human race.
Jovis on a Journey... 