Heaven Has No Fences – dedicated to the memory of the 800 migrants who died this last weekend

Posted: April 21, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Poem | Tags: , , , , , , | 8 Comments

this poem was written six years ago, but, in the light of the tragic events of this week, has a renewed resonance for me. Rest well.

Heaven Has No Fences

In our world……

The sky is blue bolted and stilled,

spring washed and not yet

summer stilted.

I lay in the garden

gazing across the Bay,

a chiff chaff summoning, bell like trilling,

unwittingly willing to add thrill to

a Sunday evening revelry.

Earlier, we walked along the Nevern,

woodlands pin pricked by wood anemones,

bolstered by wild garlic

and the first blue bells creeping skywards.

Nothing untoward until

an owl, a tawny streak,

chased by a furious blackbird

disappeared, chastened perhaps

into the green tented, splintered tree tops. 

In your world…… 

Dawn, presumably, could not come too soon

as you fought your way to the side,

galvanized by the hope a passing cargo ship

might provide.

The Mediterranean, at one point

a moonlit, blank canvas,

the next moments, a swirling scramble,

angry abstract patterns, peopled by those

in extreme, ultimate, unimagined distress.

And beyond…… 

I must confess,

a shared sense of hopelessness,

the frustration that our two worlds can be

so far flung, heart strung,

devastatingly beautiful

and one almighty mess.

The awfulness of what drove you on

the headlong rush to emigrate

is likewise tough to contemplate.

In part, I too must bear the burden

for these casting votes of carelessness.

Life, the casual combination of magic and loss,

toil, sweat, leisure, excess

the daily, weekly, yearly struggle,

the explosion of the senses.

Can leave my mind muddled, confused,

my values and principles

shadowed, huddled

assaulted by the restless flow of news.

But one thing, for me,

remains as clear as morning dew :

heaven has no fences.

Mediterranean migrants

13,500

Migrants rescued 10-17 April

1,600

Feared to have died attempting the crossing so far this year

  • 35,000 Migrants have arrived from North Africa in 2015
  • 218,000 Estimated to have crossed the Mediterranean in 2014
  • 3,500 Migrants died attempting the crossing last year

Source: UNHCR

Life on Mandela Way

Posted: December 11, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Poem | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

So, finally perhaps,

Mandela, Mandiba, is free.

Man of perpetual dignity.

He who used love

as a political strategy.

Did not seek recrimination.

delighted in non discrimination.

A ladies man they cry,

a gleam, a twinkle, under African sky.

Fighter, boxer, lawyer.

Sometimes the state’s version of a terror,

and yet, this man left us replete, but, and I repeat,

not with horror,

for he was a healer, not a destroyer.

His photograph for years denied

to those he served, who cried

struggled, Soweto dirt dusted

still in invisible Mandela they trusted.

 

The day before this colossus departed

our political leaders here in the UK

enjoyed another Parliamentary day.

In the ‘mothership of democracy’

the bear pit beckoned;

and debate was the language of shouts and jeers,

and also, some might say, an urn of crocodile tears,

a style that leaves the voters cold,

disillusioned, depressed, down hearted.

 

So much said, yet not enough to say.

Perhaps it’s time, and more, to walk and talk,

practice, preach and ourselves outreach

in living life, the Mandela Way.

 

HAMBA KAHLE WETU (Go Well, friend)

No more troubles,

and for your vision,

please, not the end.