This afternoon, the scene we looked out on was so peaceful. From our corner of Southern Scotland we look across to the Lake District hills. No bridges here and although there is talk of building a bridge from Stranraer to Ireland that seems extremly unlikely.
We are living in a crazy world where governments seem to find millions to spend on defence projects and yet there are children going to school without having had breakfast, families who have to decide whether they can heat the house and still buy enough food to last the week and pay the rent. Jobs are being lost, businesses are closing down, nurses, doctors and teachers are overworked and suffering from stress – all this plus the threat of Covid and yet, and yet, headline news today is that our PM is finding an extra £21.5bn for defence.
In the latest anthology Bridges or Walls?, produced by Dove Tales(Association of Scottish Artists for Peace), my poem focuses on the kind of bridges we need today.
Bridges We Need to Build
Extending kindness
sympathy, friendship and love
we can build bridges of hope.
Bridges of music
transcend language barriers
Bridges of food
provide for the hungry
Bridges of smiles
to welcome strangers
Bridges built with love – needed
to defeat an ever lengthening list
of negative forces poisoning our world.
