Today’s blog is contributed by my dear friend – poet, author and healer – Jay Ramsay. Thank you Jay for your heartfelt invitation for us to see beyond the violence to the changes we are ALL invited to make. May we open our eyes, see and act so that this violence can finally stop. You can learn more about Jay through his website: http://www.jayramsay.co.uk/index.html
The Sacrifice
1.
They give their lives so that we can see
because we don’t have the courage of our own.
He died in Totnes High St, frozen, only 40
to the horror of the whole community.
His friend sleeps out three nights
to raise the money to buy him a cardboard coffin
when all he had was cardboard.
Homelessness, the disgrace of our affluent society
as we gaze towards stardom, tanning our egos
in its sunlamp…fame plays with fame at facing pianos.
2.
A line of screaming children emerging from the school
guided by a terrified teacher’s hand.
The sociopath in black is angry with his mother
using her own gun to kill for good measure.
The President wipes a teary eye, while Neil Young
is blasting through the chords of ‘Throw your weapons down’.
3.
We are a living sacrifice: slaves, Jews, Palestinians,
ME sufferers, dissidents, displaced refugees…
and the girl who camped under a big leaning tree
that the flooding rains brought down on her head.
She had nothing anyway
we are nothing anyway
until our hearts are open and our eyes begin to see.
Oh crucified ones of this Everywhere Coming
that is now our reality.
– Jay Ramsay; December 16, 2012
The Holy Cow of War
She’s not beautiful and honey-brown on an Indian street
she’s the front end of a bus covered in khaki
(and weapons advertisements) randomly leaving the road
to mow down pedestrians as the radiator becomes a mouth
a maw, then a tank phallus emerges—
before she backs off ready to charge: her eyes
full of hate-filled street faces fuelled
on an eye for an eye, retaliation at any price
rage denying grief, and more rage, and if she
ever had a just cause she’s a runaway whore
that needs lampooning, and more, and more
no space for any posturing or the lie of justification
the endless excuse that leads to the death of more innocence
more fractured ruined lives the world over,
SHE MUST BE OUTLAWED—so we have to
find another way, to talk like human beings
not calculating monsters, sociopaths
legitimate squaddies on a psychotic pub-crawl
called defence of any realm—Hell—indefensible;
SHE HAS TO BE STOPPED like a ranting patient
reaching his end-sentence while everybody waits
holding the space, more more glorification
no more retro nostalgia dressed up as poetry either,
Ms Ostrich…imagine Bob Marley being right
and not just dreaming off the end of a spliff:
NO MORE WAR between nations or neighbours,
but the far harder labour of loving peace
that goes on everywhere unreported
and climbs on my podium to take gold
for thousands of years, and an age to come.
– Jay Ramsay; December 4, 2012
Jay Ramsay is an internationally recognized poet and author of over 30 books including Crucible of Love, The Poet in You and Gita – a dialogue of love and freedom. As a psychotherapist, Jay’s speciality is to help his clients uncover and express their true feelings, emotionally and creatively, and to find ways of translating that authenticity into action. He works with people of all backgrounds and at all stages of our life journey. Jay has 15 years in private practice, and has been accredited with UKCP and APP since 2004. Jay also works energetically as an experienced spiritual healer and is a full healer member of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers (MNFSH, since 1998). Jay lives in Stroud, England and can be reached through his website: http://www.jayramsay.co.uk/index.html
