Burning Bright

This is one of the poems I wrote for and read at the recent Mersey Care conference on Women as Peace-makers (7th March, Liverpool) for International Women’s day – and I will be reading at a Liverpool Women’s evening event at Leaf on Bold Street on Monday 24th March:

I think the flowers that children like  

are best for peace.
Those that might grow anywhere 
from nothing
but the merest breath, 
one kind word, 
a journey on a magpie’s tail 
(their seeds carried by accident) 
to root out sustenance 
from a question-mark of light.

Perhaps the daisies of the field 
blushing in the grass, 
perhaps a dandelion with a silver perm.

If peace becomes a rare flower,
cultivated for a Summer show 
it cannot hold its ground.

Give me a buttercup as a covenant 
or a family of harebells, 
a consultation of small blue heads 
against the breeze.

Perhaps the shy, lone snowdrop -       
an ambassador of love.