EVEN THE WINNER LOSES
Some thoughts on unrest, personal, local, regional,
national, international/From Ottawa to Kiev to the Kremlin.
BEAUTIFUL CITY
Beautiful city the centre and crater
Of European confusion,
O you with your passionate shriek for
The rights of an equal humanity
How often your Re-volution, has proven
But E-volution
Roll’d again back on itself in the
Tides of a civic insanity
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
1809 – 1892
(line breaks may differ from some print editions)
—
I come to you, as poets do,
Mayhaps to leave /or find a clue,
To sing a song of a different hue,
And leave you, mayhaps, a happier view.
—H. W. Bryce
— — —
THERE IS NO VICTORY
There is no Victory
in anarchy
There is no victory
when it is taken by aggression
There is no victory
without action, for or against
There is no victory
when children are used as shields
There is no victory
when leaders fail to lead
There is no victory
when /companies/groups/governing bodies indulge in in-fighting
There is no victory
when there is no legitimate cause
There is no triumph
when a group takes the law into its own hands
when bully tactics are employed
when disrepute is brought upon legimate leaders
when leaders betray their group
When any group tries to overpower a legitimate government
when tyranny is screamed out by a free people, then call
Ror freedom and employ tyrannical invasion on a people while being free
There is no winner here
When opponents hurl insults at each other
When you refuse to talk to your opponent
When you refuse to listen to your opponent
When you divide us all as us and them
When you bring shame on your country
When you flaunt/abuse/your flag
When you trample your country’s reputation
When foreign support and money and emblems interfere
There is no victory here
not even for the righteous
There is no hero
in aggression
There can be no peace
without mutual participation
in sincere and meaningful dialogue,
a meeting of minds, not just bodies filled with
biases to defend.
There can be no peace when you speak sweetly and carry a big grudge
For in conflict, even the winner loses
Moderation for peace
Moderation works. Without which, we, as a people,
A species, continue to lurch from crisis to crisis
Love and light instead
You may disagree But throw no stones.
—H. W. Bryce
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