Don’t shoot!
Stop the violence,
Stop the killing.
Don’t waste your time with gods,
Or clerics on the greasy pole,
Or warped ideology
Which tells you what to think,
Or the cult of the madmen,
The travelling circus,
The usual suspects,
The old men in suits,
The gap –
Between the theory and the practice.
Be yourself;
Lay down your arms,
Reach out your hand,
Love your neighbour.
Make peace.
Make peace?
You've got to be joking-there's money to be made-all those armament jobs-besides, how are we going to standard test our shiny new weapons?
Wonderful poem, Stephen. Unfortunately having Israelis and Palestinians feuding over the same scrap of land will run and run.
This is such a great and impactful poem, Stephen. And like Graham has mentioned, "you truly are WOL's Ukraine Laureate." It's been an absolute pleasure reading your work and knowing you.😊
If only both sides had the courage to turn around eh Stephen
No matter how far from this conflict?/war we are poems like yours are a neccessary way of continually banging on the door of peace and have to keep on banging until someone preferably God opens it
I watched the siege of Mariupol on tv last night
now I know what hell looks like
keep banging Stephen 👍
This has me thinking back to those heady days. The summer of love. Make peace not war etc! Can it really be so long and nothing has really changed. One only has to look at football crowds to see how tribal people really are and how quickly they can be whipped up into a hateful frenzy and being to fight!
I liked the different stance in this piece Stephen. You truly are WOL's Ukraine Laureate. Well done again.
G
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Stephen Gospage
Wed 6th Mar 2024 07:51
Thank you everyone (Graham, Leon, Manish, John C and Uilleam) for your support and your generous comments. I suppose there is an element of idealism and wishful thinking in this poem. I wrote it because, deep down, I believe that there has to be another way, that war cannot be the only avenue for expressing frustrations. I understand that in the 'real world' (wherever that is), governments have to take steps to defend their citizens, but the current talk of a 'war economy' in Europe is troubling and also deeply wasteful at a time of climate crisis etc.
Thank you all once again.
And my thanks to Tom, Stephen A, K Lynn, Holden, Steve, Tim and David for your support.