Poetry for Peace Contest

The Poetry for Peace contest was held from 15 September until 14 October 2011. The winners were anounced at a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York.

Below is one of the contest entries.

NEVER AGAIN

Every step I took,
Everything in sight,
Everything I heard,
made these things ring in my head repeatedly.

Never again,
Never again should humanity stoop so low,
so low innocent blood flow.

Never again must a person look into the eyes of fellow men and say,
 a permanent long sleeve will look good on you,
a permanent short sleeve will look good on you.

Never again must ammunition instead of rain fall from the sky

Never again must the earth swallow so many human lives

Never again must humanity confirm the sex of an unborn child,
by splitting the womb of a pregnant woman

Never again must innocent brains be darkened so much that,
 Remorse,
Forgiveness,
Pity,
and mercy could not be imprinted on them.

Never again must new trees and seedlings fall,
 for an old one to thrive where it is not needed.

Never again must royals turn into strangers in another land,
 because their land has become inhabitable

Never again must it become difficult for humanity to feed,
all because the land that brought forth food,
Now brings forth explosives that,
cuts short legs
even cuts short life

Never again,
must parents become childless,
children become orphans,
friends and siblings become lonely,
humanity wail,
all because "who" is important to them has been taken away.

Never again must humanity be set backward so many years,
all because of greed,
ambition,
excuse my language, stupidity.

Ever should:
Humanity live like royals in their home,
Humanity progress and not retrogress,
Humanity live happily, freely and in harmony.

Ever again should smiles beam all over the face of humanity.

Never again should humanity face,
War,
Conflict,
and unrest.

Ever again!
Ever again!
Ever again must humanity,
experience love,
experience trust,

Most importantly,
experience PEACE!





THE VOICE

I close my eyes
Then I open my ears wide
I hear voices
They rise as they draw closer and closer
They get louder and louder as the stereo continuously increasing in volume
Unlike like a mirage
It tends to be very real
And the echo is amazingly electrifying
It spreads like a unique whirlwind
From the mid to the oust
From the oust to the mid
From the front to the back
From the back to the front
The voices are deafening but sweet depending on where you stand
Its deafening is you stand in front of it.
(Covers ears)
And sweet if you stand behind it
(opens ears widely)
If you listen from a distance, then maybe deafening but sweet
Or sweet but deafening
The echoes of the voices scream out only one thing
Give us what we want!
Give us our rights!
Most importantly, give us our freedom!
 For we want to wake up with a tongue that can roll freely
We want to step places without thinking if we stepped rightly
Without thinking if we had stepped on a wrong toe
For we want see opportunity in our future
We want to have the belief that we can aspire to anything that is ethically and morally possible
We want to believe that we can wake up and say to ourselves,
'We live in a world where all things are very possible'
And we can but
Only dream
Stretch out our hands
And reach for it
(smiles)
It is a dream some have proudly made a reality
Some in the process of making real
Some hope to make real
And all believe will be real someday
So all can live in a world of possibilities
Blossom like the flowers in spring
And grow to live a healthy fulfilling life.
 For just as the Freedom Ship set sail decades ago,
So has the Voice Plane started to fly!
And never looked back
Leaving behind a fiery trail of Freedom
A nice rosy scent of Freedom
That burns and hopes to last forever
(Pauses and wonders for a while)
Will this voice(s) get out of hand?
Will it ever be tamed?
Let us wait and see how things eventually turn out
Fingers crossed,
We hope positive
(smiles)
It will forever be dubbed,
"THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE"
And you know what the old saying goes
"THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE VOICE OF GOD"
And the question beckons,
Is it really, the case?
(Smiles)
Is it really?
Good luck to all THE VOICES OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD
(CHAPEAU)



YOU HUMAN, AM HUMAN

Imagine you find a baby
an abandoned and crying baby
You then decide to take the child in and care for the child
What will the child be like when he/she grows up?

Imagine the child is of a different
RACE
ETHNICITY
SOCIAL STANDING

Imagine the psychology of the child
How will the child behave when he/she grows up?

The answer is
You behave how you are raised
You think how you are raised
You even eat, walk, and talk how you are raised

For in the end,
You are human
I am human
We are human

You don't get to decide where, how, when and even to whom you are born
God only creates us to look and sound different
God gave us a different colour
BLACK
IN-BETWEEN
WHITE
Because it will be BORING to see the same colour all the time

In the end,
We all live
We all eat
We all sleep
And even if I may be excused
'We all go to pay our respect to the old lady'
We all experience happiness and sorrow
We all bleed red
We all eventually die

So once again
And in good faith

You are human
I am human
We are human.
So we should learn to live together as ONE.