I was looking at the news the other night and saw (again) details of strife in the West Bank. We tend to become desensitized to violence, particularly religious violence. But it’s still real people who are suffering, and for what?
This poem is simply my way of looking at the subject. I am not a religious fanatic and I believe we should all live according to god’s will. But god’s will is whatever you happen to believe and we should be happy that other’s subscribe to a set of beliefs that help to regulate behaviour and assist us all to live in peace and harmony.
Live Well,
Ollie Lind
History
It’s tragic to know at last
how little we learn from the past.
History we see as but a muse,
intelligence we do not use
to learn the key from those who’ve seen
mistakes aplenty there have been.
How much we do in name of faith
reducing others to a wraith,
because beliefs in God do differ
release the arrow, fill the quiver.
Rush headlong, headlong to war
never, ever keeping score
of those who die in their God’s name,
seeking glory, finding shame.
Children dying for no reason
other than our bloody treason.
Forsaking history’s call to reason,
look back and see our future’s fate
we are knocking at the gate
of death, disaster and disease
simply that we can appease
the thought that our way is the best
never putting to the test
past history’s lesson that there may
be many more than just one way.
To live our lives so all may gain
love and tolerance that in the main
was missing from the daily lives
of husbands, fathers, mothers, wives.
Let us look where we have been
let past mistakes be ever seen
so past be not the future still
and live according to God’s will.
Ollie Lind
