(If it was the Whales- we’d save them)
When Shep died and we were still young
We cried for our loss- not Shep’s
Now we have grown up and walked forward
But to our shame our souls have slipped backwards.
Rape, pillage and plunder, massacre and torture
Genocide, legalised murder and organised crime.
We can turn a blind eye if it’s not on our doorstep
There’s always a scapegoat, someone to blame.
If it’s not in our country then it’s not our problem
We can share in their loss without suffering the shame
Of committing the crime.
Voyeurism isn’t a crime.
Let him who is without sin cast the first stone
Are any of us without sin
When we are the ones allowing it to happen?
Alison Jean Hankinson.
This poem is for d’Verse open link night. #189 Open link #189
The image is from Flickr and is of Syrian refugees. This is the link:
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Hues of Hankinson 
I wonder too… still I feel helpless on what I can do. Something happened with a world that was going the right way.
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Some important points on life we all should be considering…lovely poem alison…
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Perhaps if social media does any good at all it will be to bring compassion for suffering we were previously unaware of and oblivious to. Perhaps not.
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My what a grim poem! But these are grim times we are living in, just as we have been living in grim times since Creation.
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oops… I try not to be grim…sorry
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It’s easy to ignore what’s happening in a far off country. Some people can even ignore that we are selling the weapons they’re killing families with.
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Ashamed, I’ll cast no stone. Nor shall I feed, the madness, or fear. And mind where my dollar-votes go…
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with much love. Tis but a moment of poetry.
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Timely words, and plight of refugees well presented. Pray for a kinder world.
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Oh yes. we all share the blame for letting it come to this.. we just have to think back to the hundreds of times we could have, should have raised our voices. Thanks for writing this.
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I liked the phrase “There’s always a scapegoat, someone to blame”.
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I am not casting the first stone either ~ We are living in despairing times ~
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“We can turn a blind eye if it’s not on our doorstep” … I’m so guilty of this.
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hard to “like” this but certainly appreciate it ~
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Sometimes it comes despite the good work, despite those who are doing their best to help..sometimes the tide turns and we just have to wait for it to turn again.
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You’re so right – sadly.
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There’s a lot of power in that image. I also like what you say about casting the first stone and how some of your lines came across like machine gun fire. My poem “The White Helmets,” https://madpoetenchained.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/the-white-helmets/, was also about Syria’s problems.
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