Or those who mould the choices Everywhere upthrown With such resource of time That ‘though ten thousand voices Call (when one alone’s Sufficiently sublime To make a life rejoice) They hear ere it has flown A majestic chorus chime!

I woke this morning I felt a warning Dark cloud’s are forming Men uniforming News is alarming Ignorance arming Our lives are gambled Truth kicked and trampled Headlines are dangled Protest is strangled The future trembles Armies assemble Tabloid analysis Selfish callousness Brainless malice gives Thought paralysis Nations jealous Find weapon sellers Earth mined for poison Metal war toys and Jobs for the boys the Board room enjoys but No! There are choices Let’s raise our voices Raise our voices strongly 'Though the way is long We find relief in action Shared belief and passion We can do what we must We will build love and trust And our peaceful spirit Will make murder fear it All whom war endangers Speak! And history changes Let our strength be splendid Until war is ended!

Our weariness still whispers yes As in our bed pleasingly spread With sighing silk we press ‘Though night now flows toward its close Our senses wake and for their sake The scented candle glows Oh gods it’s beautiful! Life’s purpose may be felt With gliding fingertips In hands its hallowed warmth be held Or drawn within to find The awed and gasping innocence Of Nature’s reverent minds The hours we keep in our deep Enchantment give us leave to live Outside the need for sleep Your languid touch awakens such A lively thrill; it seems to fill My own fatigue too much Oh gods it’s wonderful! And you’re so meshed with me Our motion makes an incandescent Open mouthed unity In this ecstasy bliss Promises to keep this Night perfectly sleepless

We're weary We who protest Who build unrest Make this request We need to rest When will we rest? When we're arrested Let's share out the stress Let our success Make the load less Let protesters rest And let the ease of gentle peace Every weary hero bless

I gave to sleep a heavy hour And every mental tissue bathed Naked in its power Surreal and drifting, rainbow black Submerged in depthless lidded pools Spiralling and slack And when I stood again like crystal Sharp clear and glittering Reasoning, bright Open to clarity Sleep's rich colours faded in the light

Day's brilliant light has sunk beneath the sea And intimate stars alone console the void Beside night's oceanic edge walks she Who had her daughterhood by waves destroyed Replenished grief explodes on tearful rocks And surges in her barefoot body's core She stumbles, reckless of the threatening shocks And drenching lonely violence of this shore The gentle dark horizon, scarcely seen Now pacifies her sigh-exhausted breast In blending floods, both clashing and serene In sea and stars her being is expressed And ‘though adrift on ocean and in space She’s comforted in Nature’s wide embrace

Alive, the air's moist, moving Immense and solemn, where feathered streakings fly The breath of a towering pale and fluttering sky Exhales the soothing change from barren dry Wild with grateful assent the canopy's jubilant jostling Gives giddy shelter to small brown squeaking darts of agile wing The fading afternoon enfolds the windborne leaves Its greying premature and driven restlessly Until from above the treetops Fall the first full raindrops Sudden, sodden, spattering showers shapes obscure Spreading softly shallow sheets of spray Soaked cement shines slippery Pelting droplets pouring down Splashing puddles and pools People are propelled past, swiftly seeking shelter The roof’s drumhead beats not for battle But for safe and wakeful peace Inside, secure, alive, with mind and heart flung wide Renewing rain will water thought and bring release Protected calm in growing dark as glass is lashed Wet-scented air refreshes face and flesh And at the last, as night and storming mesh Since Nature does not sleep in her distress I also watch for her, I watch and will not rest

Alone, I feel each sense reveal a putrid world's decay In print, on screen, the hack obscenely chooses words to say 'Let wealth destroy all Nature's joy' - the news is worse each day My silence lets the greedy get their stupid worthless way Open your hand and place it in ours Impotent anger pass And with your friends find comforting power Together we'll stand fast! However few, what we can do our courage will achieve We cannot but stand up for what we ardently believe The eleventh hour is struck but our resolve can yet retrieve A sense of worth for planet earth its children may receive Reach out your hand, take hold of the time Leave despair in the past The power for change is yours and mine Together we'll stand fast! We are alive. We will survive, and as Earth's peril grows So shall our cause which overawes each honest heart that knows And as we grow we'll overthrow corrupt destructive foes The outrage of this insane age we will bring to a close! So close your fist and raise it with ours! Integrity unsurpassed Gives us the essence of our power Together we'll stand fast!

Like a favourite coat, elderly Frayed from winters past His dream is worn: However, it, ‘though gradually Greyed (and yet too fast) Seems reborn The threads have come apart And there is none to mend But although torn No shred will he discard But wear until the end Its warmth forlorn “If everything that is had Beauty's essence Were this, as once she asked, my perfect world Dissolved, the ugly struggle with injustice Duty lulled in victory's omnipresence Racism extinct, its cruelty hurled From each infected mind. Its sick disgust its Fear destroyed . Could Trust all weapons sheathe Were War a word with no modernity What would I do, delivered from this strife? Within her arms acceptance would I breathe Again the perfume of eternity And forever kiss the glory of her life My thoughts have strayed on alien paths to heaven And sipped Impossibility's thin nectar: For slow terrestrial steps, afraid to stumble Without the spring that youth and friends had given Now convey a sour crumbling spectre Stalking uneternal realms and humble The way I follow leads to lengthening shade: ‘Though memory of her sunlight gilds my sky's Immense heart-lifting sunset; how can it Not fail and fade? Night will not be delayed For at the last it’s Death that never dies Love's beauty but imagined infinite Before it can annihilate This sparkling flash of time, efface The billion colours of existence Both joy and pain eradicate Before it stills this restless pace Death must conquer my resistance But not a lonely screamed protest (At least not ‘til the very last) Allies have I, all alive Who also strive, and will not rest Our voices, when the chanting’s passed Can leave some hope in Time’s archive We need, and have courageous songs And laughter past the point of tears Age can only slow the dance Of hope that human need prolongs As with the gathering speed of years Decay and beauty both advance

Terra nullius Lao Gai Desapareción Etnicko cisenyi Umuganda Endlösung Naqba War of terror on terror No more! We wont accept this pain. Not ever again! No more! The injustice is obscene and insane! Born into hardship or rebels from privilege As women and men we demand, in every people's language The liberty of all enslaved, the end of fear, the trust of friends A world of compassion where peace never ends! Dissent is the duty of all Whose generous heart Whose love of sharing, and of truth is dismayed All those who witness aggression and cruelty Intolerant and blind belief, the violence of poverty Stand up with courage! Organise! 'Though justice may suffer it never will die! Praise for the activists ablaze With selfless consuming flames Burning brighter than the banners they raise! All whose awareness has taught them to grieve Know the need to take action for what they believe Let us be generous, honest and strong Patient and calm, for the conflict is long Even the humblest of actions we take Contributes its good to the future we make Cruelty's victories will viciously breed Where silence gives licence to violence and greed Friend if you choke, too fatigued by the horror of The hatred that's broken the lives of countless ones we love Our arm is always here to help you to stand To take strength and comfort from the clasping of hands Hands that by sharing their labour extend Protection and hope to the lives they defend Until atrocity is only a memory It’s then, only then that our struggle can end!