The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

This page provides links to some of our favourite poems and pieces of prose. Consider it the index of an anthology. Stop here, browse a while, read and enjoy.

The list of links is a little bit smaller at the moment, because in our enthusiasm we fell foul of the rules about linking to copyright and non-copyright material. But we will add links in again as we find the legit ones to link things to.

It is a privelege to be involved in the creation of this page - it truly is a community effort, and it has introduced the members of the Willem Love Collective who are editing it to thoughts and words and songs they had not heard before.

If you have a favourite which you would like us to add, then post a line or two in the 'requests' thread, and one of us will track it down on-line and post a link here.

The Willem Love Collective

September 2001

Poems and other words of Peace

Although this is a non-denominational page, it is important to acknowledge wisdom wherever we find it.
1 Corinthians 13 is one of the defining texts about the value and strength of love from any doctrine or creed.

The Buddha too, places loving-kindness - what the Buddhists call 'metta' above all other virtues in his preaching to his followers:

The Buddha

adapted from the Itivuttaka

Translated by Justin M Moore

John Donne's powerful statement of common humanity says: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. - The whole text of the piece can be found in his Meditation 17

Abu Ben Adam (the name means Abu, son of Adam) is a poem by James Henry Legh Hunt about the love of God, and the love of Humanity.

The last lines of Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach say:

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

But the whole poem is strangely resonant right now.

Many great songs were created in the fight against fights. Portishead wrote these lyrics
Oh, can't anybody see,

We've got a war to fight here

Never found our way,

Regardless of what they say.

John Lennon is quoted here a lot - but that only goes to show how much he was committed to peace. Happy Christmas, War is Over is quite an amazing song that contains the brilliant sentiment War is over, if you want it .

On the subject of Christmas, few of us can forget the images of the famine in the Sudan in 1984, or Bob Geldof's efforts to relieve it with the ironic name 'Band Aid'. He was right; it was just a sticking plaster on a haemorrhage, but an inspiring and chastening sticking plaster none-the-less, and one which saved lives. It started off with a multitude of artists singing Don't they know it's Christmas

And the sound-track to those images of the famine was Drive by The Cars, which makes the point to all of us that You can't go on Thinking nothing's wrong

Bob Dylan's song Blowing in the Wind asks questions now which are, if anything, even more to the point now than they were in the '60s
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

Eric Bourden from his "Declares War" Album circa 1969

WAR huh yeah!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothin!

say it again ya'll

It ain't nothin' but a life-taker!

Benifits only the under-taker!

WAR!

The Song The Tin Soldier includes the words:

Go ahead and hate your neighbor

Go ahead and kill your friend

Do it in the name of heaven

You can justify it in the end

Read the rest of the song, which is about the futility of violence

What a Wonderful World sung by Louis Armstrong, is not a political statement about peace. It is however a song which can reach out to people at a time of much frustration and despair. It reminds us to take note of the simple things in life, and the good things which shine through them.

Donovan's Universal Soldierreminds us where the true responsibility for war lies, and of the common humanity of all those who are sent to fight.

Although some people with a spiritual turn of belief find the opening verse of John Lennon's Imagine rather nihilistic, the closing lines of the second verse: Imagine all the people living life in peace... are ones we surely need to take to heart at the moment.

Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell is an incredibly talented composer and singer. Anyone who has not heard the rich vocal performances, close harmony and and pure talent of the group 'Sweet Honey In The Rock', has missed a delightful experience.


The Song 'We Are', composed by Dr. Barnwell and performed by 'Sweet Honey In The Rock', is a message of hope and potential. It is a statement of who we are. All of us. You. Me. Your annoying neighbor. The person on the other side of the world whom you haven't met, just yet.


When the Willem Love Collective contacted Dr. Barnwell, requesting permission to post a link to the lyrics of 'We Are', after explaining the what why and how of this oasis, she replied as follows:


'Thank you very much for your message, your caring and your interest in permanently linking to the lyrics of WE ARE. I would be delighted.


Please create the link. I will check my site to be sure that all of my copyright info and other information are available and up to date
there. May I create a reciprocal link as well?


'Thank you for the oasis. I will gladly visit from time to time myself.


'We all need moments of peacefulness these days'.


Ysaye M. Barnwell

Here, then, is a link to the lyrics of 'We Are', with thanks to Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell, another human being who cares.

Another, perhaps even more appropriate, set of lyrics composed by Dr. Barnwell can be found in the song 'Would You Harbor Me'. The music is beautiful, too.

I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence - His Holiness the Dalai Lama, September 12, 2001

A tribute to the spirit of New York City and its people, written by a New Yorker who hasn't lived there in years, but never left, offers hope and unity within diversity.

War and Peace

All we are saying, is 'Give Peace a Chance' - John Lennon

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come - Carl Sandburg

Non-violence doesn't always work - but violence never does - Madge Micheels-Cyrus

War has no eyes - Chinese proverb

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war - Chinese proverb

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind - John F.Kennedy

I prefer an unjust peace over a just war - Cicero

Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato

It's better to jaw jaw than to war war - Churchill

War does not determine who is right - only who is left - Bertrand Russell

Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die - Salvadore Dali

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not the end. - Matthew 24:6 (New International version of Bible)

The third peculiarity of aerial warfare was that it was at once enormously destructive and entirely indecisive. - H G Wells

Speak softly and carry a big stick - Theodore Roosevelt

You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. - Johnny Carson

Fighting Wars

I have discovered something amazing: men will die for ribbons - Napoleon Bonaparte

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice. - Albert Einstein

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight: nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety: is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself.
- John Stuart Mill

Creating Peace

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace - John Lennon

For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work for it - Eleanor Roosevelt

If we wish to create a lasting peace, we must begin with the children - Mahatma Gandhi

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein

Change your thoughts and you change your world - Norman Vincent Peale

Personal Responsibility and the expanded consciousness

After all this, I still believe that, deep down, people are good - Anne Frank

Don't hate a rose for her thorns; love thorns for their roses - Anonymous

Life is mostly froth and bubble;

Two things stand like stone:

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in one's own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870)

A traveller without knowledge is a bird without wings - Sa'di Gulistan c 1258

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak - Epictetus

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. - Albert Einstein

He who points a finger at an other, points three fingers of his hand at himself - Gustav Heinemann

;Most of the time one is unhappy because of pondering - Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

Violence is the last resort of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov

Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the development of what has been called "species consciousness" - something over and above nationalisms, blocs, religions, ethnicities. During this week of incredulous misery, I have been trying to apply such a consciousness, and such a sensibility. Thinking of the victims, the perpetrators, and the near future, I felt species grief, then species shame, then species fear. - Martin Amis about the atrocities of 11th September 2001

Like the shadow of the earth against the night sky, we do not always discern that which we produce - Unknown

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak.

Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen
Winston Churchill

Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength - Hasidic saying

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster - F. Nietzsche

We have seen the Enemy, and he is Us - Walt Kelly's 'Pogo'

Better a patient man than a warrior, one who controls his temper than one who takes a city - Proverb

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do - Voltaire

Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity... and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

Ghosts work powerfully when men believe in them - John Morris

Man's inhumanity to man

Makes countless thousands mourn
Robert Burns

Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace within the storm - Unknown

Conquer anger with lack of anger; bad, with good; stinginess, with generosity; a liar, with truth - Proverb

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come - Victor Hugo

Cause and Effect

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. - Martin Luther King Jr

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind - Ghandi

If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed - Chinese proverb

Our reaction to what is presented to us forms the quality of our future - Anonymous

Truth and Freedom

Information doesn't kill you - Frank Zappa

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all - Naom Chomsky

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of 'Truth' than lies - F. Nietszche

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought - Proverb

The important things in life

My treasures neither clink nor glitter, but gleam in the sun and neigh in the night - Old arab proverb

Religions, right and wrong

Don't be afraid of tomorrow, for God has already been there - Anonymous

Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity. - R I Fitzhenry

One of the greatest tragedies in human history was the hijacking of morality by religion - Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping the common people quiet - Napoleon Bonaparte

Puritanism - the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy - H. L. Mencken

Let's be realistic about this; the guitar can be the single most blasphemous device on Earth - Frank Zappa

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh - Voltaire

A religion that is small enough for us to understand would not be large enough for our needs - Proverb

Politics

When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a Communist - Archbishop Helder Camara

Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race - Albert Einstein

Mahatma Ghandi - on the subject of Western Civilisation: 'It would be a good idea'

Love and the Human Spirit

You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometime

You'll find

You get what you need
The Rolling Stones

Even now the fragrant darkness of her hair

Had brushed my cheek; and once, in passing by,

Her hand upon my hand lay tranquilly:

What things unspoken trembled in the air!
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Once he drew

With one long kiss my whole soul through

My lips, as the sunlight drinketh dew.
Anon

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it - Helen Keller

Our sorrows and wounds are only healed when we touch them with compassion - Traditional

Love is the most powerful force in the universe - Anonymous