Love not Hate

As Valentine's Day approaches, I was searching round for a poem to celebrate the day when I found this one I wrote in 2006. Sadly, it still seems relevant to the world today.

Love not Hate

Sometimes the news is hard enough to hear

Let alone live through

We have let hate win

If we allow for one minute, these borders of fear

To run among us

Dividing our hearts, separating our minds

The truth is this

The dogmatic mindset that brings violence, distrust

Fear and hate to every doorstep is no weapon at all

Against love

The sanctuary you crave is the human heart

And it beats in every one of us

Violence cannot win

Because it cannot see

How blind it is

To the truth

The walls of hate it builds

Only serve to imprison it

The human heart will always fly free

From Your Valentine

A letter sent from a prison cell

Where even hope darkness quells

Such a bright, divine light, this love

As swift and sweet as any dove

Emperors, dictators and warlords fall

While Love, that universal call

Burns on, despite brutality and fear

And we remember every year

Not the hatred

Nor the pain

Not the tyrant

But the name

Signed and sealed, the heart's final line

With love, from your Valentine