Tag: Palestine

Collapse Of All

.Reading time 1 minute.
The war takes my breath away 
That people could still think in that way 
In terms of human animals and sorting knives by their edge
The sharpness of the thoughts in their head
As they strike their enemy down 
But what if their enemy lived in this town 
And they decided to blitz it 
Because they say that violence fits it 
And it deserves decimation 
I think of the train station 
Where I once met him 
And the idea is so grim 
That he would be the men in the verse 
Where they say women and children first 
And I have to leave him on the ship 
Or hands behind his back tied with a zip 
In a grave at Nasser with nothing to identify 
I watch as a mother cry 
And scream over the loss
If this is innocence then why do they pay the cost 
For a button you press 
And guns they fire, you know the rest 
I don’t need to elucidate 
Because I’ve touched the educate 
In Middle Eastern politics 
And the lump in my throat still sticks 
When I hear the students soar 
And demand that the people in charge do more 
To prevent what happens to a child 
Lost somewhere in a wild
Wild world 
Sometimes it’s a blessing to be born a girl

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Machine Gun Eyes

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Dead bodies and machine gun eyes
I think they believe the lies
That they are fed
And when they lie in bed
They must stop the truth from reaching them 
And life must be teaching them 
How to bear the weight they’ve been gifted
I sweat in my jumper that’s been thrifted
From some nearby store
And I just wanted to change it more 
But how do you compete with belief
And you just feel relief 
When it falls away from you 
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what to do
What matters is that you’re wiling to be led
Not blind opposition to what’s being said 
And I watch Ben Gvir shout his refrain 
Does he even know the pain 
He’s in and so inflicts 
They say that some day wars will be fought with sticks
After we’ve destroyed ourselves
Why do you put them in cells
If they are brother and sister tide
Please leave the Palestinians alive
You’ve done enough
And, God knows, it wasn’t out of love
It was to feed that old demon 
That’s always dreaming 
He will rule the world 
And what does it matter what says this girl 
Who is just a child of Irish rain 
And our own kind of particular pain 
As we live on the land
Our ancestors once couldn’t understand
As it was stolen from beneath them 
Until someone bequeath them 
Their own patch of ground 
And do you hear the sound
Of the child cry
Why must I be the one to let her die? 

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Mo Stór

.Reading time 1 minute.
We watch it unfold before our eyes
Another day, another Palestinian dies 
And their culture is erased like it has no meaning
And the people are not dreaming
Because it’s no nightmare
But a reality that would scare 
The most stoic into submission
I don’t need anyone’s permission
To say what I feel to be true
The end of the genocide starts with you
And I, as we raise a voice to lift the blockade
So that the only shade
The children know is that of a tree
Palestine is forever free
No matter the walls and doors
Checkpoints and bombed out floors
But a spirit nothing can kill
If I know anything it’s that Love never will
Ever be defeated
And my courage has not retreated 
Far enough that I will not say
I can see another way
For the tide to beat the shore 
You are not alone, mo stór

To The Land I Love (Éire)

.Reading time 4 minutes.
Half of the town is missing in Bermuda
You could search for a reason but it would elude ya 
Why the history of partition and pain
Became as common in Ireland as rain 
And I fight to hold my rebel spirit 
Under control so that no one might hear it
Because I have the heart of the Gael
And my soul is not up for sale
And my blood used to boil
When I would read history about our sweat and toil 
Under the rule 
Of the English that we learned in school
Had us under the thumb
And they would kill anyone who would not succumb
To the heavy weight of oppression
And it is my confession
That some part of me bears generational hate
For all of the acts that left us in that state
The people I would love to be kin 
To if they hadn’t died of the sin 
Of merely ceasing to exist 
As the loyal service of a crown that I missed
When they educate 
You to clean your dinner plate
Or you will die
If you do not want to lie
Then stand up and be counted 
As the people who stood up and shouted 
Against the lashing of hail 
And the plantation fail 
To convert an adequate number 
Now I see Palestine and their hunger
As they have no bread 
Because they are controlled by land, sea and air instead 
Of the freshness of home
Do we as a tribe leave them alone
To face the mountain of world 
Built on the conquering of the girl
In the soul of us all
Someone wants to build a brick wall 
To keep the Mexicans out 
But I don’t trust a word out of his mouth
Because the land is free
And it does not belong to me 
But I to it
The Native American’s in the place where I sit
At the altar of pride
It is not okay that I hide
When I have the privilege to say
The conquering is not okay
When you consider the truth
The civilised nations to play the brute 
And inflict 
Themselves on a future I would rather quit 
In the innocent stain 
I can see it happening again 
As the world turn 
But will the world burn
If we do nothing to stall
The advance of the darkness that answers the call
Of the nomad or thief 
I look to the sky and its blessed relief
Just to know 
That there is a space that will not let go
And though they fly through the air
And I have been there
I can’t set a flag
On a cloud so that I can brag
That I now own it 
I used to resent but I have grown it
Into simmering wisdom 
I watch the auspices of power and the Great Schism 
Split us into a prism of light 
That we are all one is the message of life
And bear no hate for your enemy 
Coz you walk in his shoes and you discover you’re free
To love enough not to be pulled low
Enough to wish him to die slow 
In the mists of time 
If I could forgive would that be a crime 
For the sake of pure love
And all of the Gaelic in the place where I stood
My ground in this sacred place
If you don’t know you can read it in my face

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The Desperation Of Sighs

.Reading time 1 minute.
There is the desperation of sighs
As another Palestinian dies 
For want of love
Because the world is too far above 
Itself to reach down
And bring peace to a town 
When someone runs with a gun 
Something somehow clasps 
Their hands so that thing cannot last 
And yet we watch as the ICJ 
Won’t wish this genocide away
And people say you’re anti Semetic
If you don’t agree with the rhetoric
That would condemn a people to evisceration 
Torture and brutality the equation 
That would erase them from this earth
I don’t know if bombs are made to hurt
Or just tear apart 
The human heart
We must start
A movement, a revolution 
To end apartheid that is brutal 
And unforgiving and unfair
I know because I was there 
When I watched the flag fall
Don’t hide them behind a brick wall
And say it’s not your plight
Because they’re relying on us, alright?

Lost Causes And St. Jude

.Reading time 1 minute.
South Africa’s leading the charge
And we are all floating on a barge
Down the river Thames 
Watching it happen again 
And over one hundred and fifty years ago 
The Irish were starved to death so 
The British could maintain their economy 
The invisible hand and the maize crop they take away from me 
So how do I not feel Palestine 
As though the struggle was mine
Babies screaming in the street
As the winter steals the heat 
And Israel bombs the buildings 
Do they not care for the children 
Who will grow up with war wounds
Or the ones who died too soon
The mothers, fathers, family, friends 
Is this how the world ends
Watching silently from the western front 
As a people bear the brunt 
Of what’s held in the unconscious 
And I don’t know what they want us
To do in the movement in between 
When they convince the dream 
That it is reality
But the lie is not getting the best of me

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To Be Irish And Free

.Reading time 2 minutes.
To be Irish and free
Is this a part of our history 
That we could call a break with the past
Coz it’s been nigh on 1000 years since the last
Time empire didn’t darken our door 
And I couldn’t wish for anything more
Than the heart that beats in my chest
For the rest 
Of the world that still labours under
The sound of that thunder
As it quakes ground 
With artillery or the sound
Of the machinery of the day
Because they want to take away
All that we have come to know
But Love does not let us go
In spite of all the trouble 
And it is no bubble
That we just fell into 
It is the heritage we were born to 
Embody
And already
I can see the dawn
When the tendrils have withdrawn 
From their occupation of lands
And the dust and the sands
Yield no harvest
But I divest 
Myself of the poverty
And say all beings should be free
Of the mighty weight of bowing down 
And the water will not drown 
It will only nourish and refill 
What the darkness tried to kill
And it’s not a personal sin
It is just a deviation from Him
And the persecution dies
As the whole world tries
To shift the narrative 
And it is imperative
That we do not tolerate
What we’ve come to know as hate
As it darkens the door 
That has come to shatter on the floor
But the light just pours through
And it’s from within me and you 
There is no us and them 
There’s just a mistake we can’t make again

The Courage To Speak

.Reading time 1 minute.
He has the courage to speak 
And it makes me weak
To see a man in the stars
Behind prison bars 
That are self explanatory 
And this is a war so planetary 
As it drags the dust and the water 
Upon every son and every daughter
Of Palestine 
That the shame should be mine
For losing this on my watch 
I just stare at the clock 
Every morning and hope that he 
Has weathered the storm that we 
Are safe from here in Éire 
It’s not fair 
That you should have to suffer 
And you may love Her
But you shouldn’t have to entertain 
This kind of rain 
In this season 
And there is no reason 
This is happening but that 
Some people did something they can’t take back 
And the wrath
Ensues
What the god of men does when it cannot pay its dues
It says what it does not know 
And it holds on when it should’ve let go 
Long ago 
And I just sit and stare 
And pray that you’re still there
Behind a screen 
Here’s to you and the scream 
That pierces the night 
I guess there is no good fight

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

From The River To The Sea

.Reading time 3 minutes.
They chant the verse 
And I rehearse
For my own tune to own
My, how the flowers have grown
On this land
Where the empty sand
Used to hold the bones
And the stones 
Of what once were homes
Of those who emigrated 
Or died in the peat bogs evacuated
And they call it An Ghorta Mhor 
But let me whisper to you, a stór 
That it was a genocide
As they starved the ones who died
Just so they could export their grain
Grown on a ground green with rain
And the invisible hand
Of economics understand
That you cannot intervene 
Or you will shatter the dream 
That says that individuality
Brings about the best reality
And is a self balancing axis 
Now, we’re watching equivocation pay our taxes
And export our problems to a foreign scene 
And there may no longer be a queen
Who says who gets to live or die 
But Elizabeth nodded her head to those who cry
In memory of those slain
Do you think that I forget the pain
Just because I’m young and free
And no one has ever harmed me 
In the way that is described 
By the history books I pried 
From my own fingers, harrowed to the core
And it’s not happening anymore
Here
But I fear
That a child bombed by the IDF 
Has no chance to call for the ref
To call an end to the game
Coz the sides aren’t level and if it’s all the same
I’d rather not watch the slaughter
Of someone’s son or daughter
To satisfy regality
I’ve had enough of that to destroy me 
Being Irish on Celtic soil
There were years I felt my blood boil 
At the memory of what had been done
Now I am the one
Who can speak up to say
This is not okay
And if you make rubble out of homes
You poison your own stones
As they’re thrown into the pit
It’s not something I can sit with 
And just say it’s the way things are
We are all warmed by the same star 
And it heats every grain of sand 
It is not limited to the realm of man 
But to all of God’s creatures
To the expression of nature’s features 
As it turns on us to express
That we cannot suppress
The sacred feminine within
Just to satisfy the man that would win
The war
You want a reason but what for?