Poems on War and Peace by Lynn White
All We Are Saying
It’s all we are saying
over and over
again
from before his time
to now
and long afterwards
in a world unimaginable
then
and beyond imagining now
asking
pleading
to the end of time
like a magic mantra,
only listen.
Hear us
and
give peace a chance.
First published in “Fevers of the Mind, John Lennon Inspired”
~~
Caged Birds Singing
She asked me why the caged birds sang.
I couldn’t tell her,
not for sure.
No mate will arrive this year,
just like last year.
I wonder if they remember.
Perhaps they still
live in hope.
She asked me if they heard the bombs falling
and if they felt fear.
I couldn’t tell her,
not for sure.
Perhaps peace will arrive this year,
unlike last year.
I wonder if they remember peace.
Perhaps they still
live in hope
as we all do here
where the bombs never stop falling.
She asked me if they knew
they brought us comfort.
“I think that’s why
they still sing,”
I said.
First published in “New Verse News”
~~
Empty Shoes
We take care how we choose our shoes.
make sure they fit our feet,
represent our personalities.
So something of us must remain
when they are emptied.
Not just our smells and mis-shapes,
evocative as they are,
but something fundamental
spiritual,
symbolic.
Now see them here.
Empty shoes
laid out tidily in rows.
Blocked together in a town square.
Rows upon rows of them
that once contained the toddlers
or school children
now dead,
killed by bombs
and bullets.
Our children.
See here
empty shoes
Rows and rows of them
that will never contain the feet
of peaceful people
Our people, spanning place and time without end.
First published in “Dissident Voice”
~~
Peace Is
Peace is more
than the absence of war,
though that would be a start.
And then the dissolving of boundaries
constructed by humans
to cordon off one from the other
and shout across the divide.
Then we can whisper and hug
our way to peace.
First published in War Against Peace Anthology
Copyright © 2026 Lynn White
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#children #death #peace #shoes #war