Peace Poems & Quotes

Say No to Peace

Say 'no' to peace
If what they mean by peace
Is the quiet misery of hunger
The frozen stillness of fear
The silence of broken spirits
The unborn hopes of the oppressed

Tell them that peace
Is the shouting of children at play
The babble of tongues set free
The thunder of dancing feet
And a father's voice singing

Say 'no' to peace
If what they mean by peace
Is a rampart of gleaming missiles
The arming of distant wars
Money at ease in its castle
And grateful poor at the gate

Tell them that peace
Is the hauling down of flags
The forging of guns into ploughs,
The giving of the fields to the landless,
And hunger a fading dream.

Brian Wren in Bread of Tomorrow, Christian Aid p 130.

All In The Mind

Peace is a bird,
White -feathered
As a winter tree
Frothed in snow.

It is silence
Leaking from cupped
Hands like ice-cold
Mountain water.

Peace is a petal
On the summer wind,
Fine spun as a
Dragonfly's wing.

It is a promise
Straddling the skies
Like a rainbow
After a storm.


Moira Andrew.

THE NEWS

I don't like the news that explodes
Leaves refugees crying, homeless.
That orders tanks into cities
Blasting down schools and houses.
News that blows up hospitals
News that kills and fills deep graves.
I don't like news that screams abuse
Kicks the legs from under wingers.
Taps their ankles, argues back
News that won't learn how to lose.

I like news that's just been born.
News that puts food in stomachs.
News that rescues, that cures.
That celebrates it's hundredth birthday.
News that will make today,
Happier than the day before.


David Harmer

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

I noticed your sign saying 'Make peace not war'
So I thought I'd pop in to find out some more.
Before it all starts and I sign on the line.
I've got some questions if you've got the time

If, in an exam John stole my pen
Would it be OK to fight with him then?
And later that day, whilst on my way home
If John and his brother Phil, stole my phone
In that situation it only seems fair
That I should be able to sort out the pair!

But, if the next day whilst out with my mum
John kicked a football that hit my mum's bum!
If he didn't say sorry, but just laughed with glee
Then kicked it again so that it hit me!
If that were to happen would it be alright
To take no more nonsense, and put up a fight?

So lets get this straight, are you trying to say
No more excuses starting today?
That peace isn't just something adults don't do,
But something that even I need to think of too.
So, even if John were to kick me in the pants
I'd need to remember to give peace a chance!

Jo West, Liz Lamb

'Peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It involves the establishment of justice and mutual respect among people. It involves total well-being and right relationships within the community.'

Rebuilding Sierra Leone' The Council of Churches in Sierra Leone

A Peace

There is a peace
I know about.
It is in the animals of the forest.
It is in the birds that fill the air.
It is gently blowing in the wind.
It is whispered about among the flowers in the garden.
It dwells with the fish of the ocean.
It is with the animals of deserts and prairies.
But it is not with the people of the world.
Why?

unknown

'Living out a witness to peace has to do with everyday choices about the work we do, the relationships we build, what part we take in politics, what we buy, how we raise our children. It is a matter of fostering relationships and structures - from personal to international - which are strong and healthy enough to contain conflict when it arises and allow its creative resolution.'

Mary Lou Leavitt , Quaker Peace and Service

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Bullying Poems

BULLIED

Bullies get you.
I don't know how but they do.
The seem to have some
Secret inborn radar
Tuned into loners
Quiet ones
Different ones

You don't have to
Do anything, say anything
Seems you just have to be you

Grown-ups think they know
Bullies? Just cowards, they say,
Unsure of themselves,
Needing to act big.
But its hard to believe
When jeering faces
Zoom up to yours.

When they are hassling you.
Calling you names
Leading the chanting
The whispering
Urging others on,
A relentless horde
Of nagging, peaking birds

Then there's the 'in-betweens',
The waiting, the not knowing
Just sure that
Sooner or later
It's going to come
The worst times;
The thinking times

Don't ask me the answer
I don't know but -
I'm getting there.

Keep my eyes skinned
Find a crowd to vanish into
Before they see me

Cornered, I know I cant look at them
In the eye - but I've learned
Not to look at the floor,
try to walk tall.

Mostly I've learned
To talk in my head,
Tell myself
Its not me, I'm all right -
They're the idiots, the misfits
Eventually
It begins to sink in

I'm getting tougher inside
It's working
Just don't give in

Try anything, anything
But don't let them win


Patricia Leighton.

DREAM TEAM

My team
Will have all the people in it
Who're normally picked last.

Such as me.

When it's my turn to be chooser
I'll overlook Nick Magic- Feet-Jo-nes
And Supersonic Simon Hughes.

And I'll point at my best friend Sean
Who'll faint with surprise
And delight.
And at Robin who's always the one
Left at the end that no one chose -
Unless he's away, in which case it's guess who?

And Tim who can't see a thing
Without his glasses.
I'll pick him.

And the rest of the guys that Mr Miller
Calls dead legs but only need their chance
To show what they're made of.

We'll play in the cup final
In front of the class, the school, the town.
The world the galaxy.

And due to masterly leadership shown
By their captain, not forgetting
His three out-of -this-world goals,

We'll WIN.


Frances Nagle.

SHAME

There's a girl at school
We teased today
Made jokes, called her names.
My friends all laughed,
Called it harmless fun.
Said it was just a game.

Now I'm at home
Feeling horrid inside,
Long gone that thoughtless grin.
How will I face her
Tomorrow at school?
I wish I hadn't joined in.


Tracey Blance.

NEW GIRL

Have you seen the new girl?
First-day -at-our-school girl
Not-sure-what-to-do girl
No-partner-in-the-queue girl
Mouth-stuck-down-like-glue girl
Looking-a-little-blue girl
Needs-a-friend-or-two girl
So what you going to do girl?

Danielle Sensier.

IT HURTS

It hurts when someone makes remarks
About the clothes I wear,
About the foods I refuse to eat
Or the way I cover my hair.

It hurts when someone laughs and jokes
About the way I speak.
Ignore them says my bad, but it's hard
To turn the other cheek

It hurts when someone calls me names
Because of the colour of my skin.
Everyone's different outside
But we're all the same within.


John Foster.

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