The wages of fear and the revolution of hope

“When the Thoughts went Red “

Or

“The wages of fear and the revolution of hope “

Behold the mother earth, witness the destruction,

The cries of agony that have become a gruesome familiarity.

Chaos reigns supreme on the playgrounds,

Where once new dreams sprouted green.

Justice to money and injustice to man.

Yet we are numb to these sorrows of pain

We turn a deaf ear and a blind eye

We turn a helpless hand to the needy

Are we so soul-less that we have become unaware-?

To the stench of the corpse?

The corpse of a society filled with dread and death.

People have lost hope – The will to fight on.

The life blood to live on in these dark times.

There may be prophets who preach of a better time to come,

That people who suffer now will be rewarded in afterlife.

But people need more than people who clutch books,

Preaching “blessed are the meek” to instill hope.

So then what? You may ask-

Should we pick up the axe? Fight fire with fire?

NO ! That would be giving into madness.

Blood however spilled is still red,

Red with anger, rage and corruption.

One must never give into this chaos.

For then the war will forever be lost.

This is true that there is something terribly wrong with this world.

But it isn’t something that we can’t fix.

We need to go back – look into thy hearts

Stare into the mirror of consciousness

Seeking the root of this wrong.

It was fear – fear made us weak.

The fear of losing oneself and love

The fear of standing up for what is right

This fear made us slaves to it’s will

We surrendered our wills at it’s feet.

The integrity of one’s opinion compromised.

Integrity – The last inch of a man.

It is small, it is fragile-

Yet it is the soul of one’s humanity.

Identity and freedom flow from it’s fount.

And now our freedom is subordinated by fear

Not the freedom of the republic

But the freedom of life and love

For freedom is not bound by physical lines

It is a perspective and a way of life.

Now it is bound by the chains of fear.

The time has come to break these chains.

To regain our integrity, to inspire hope.

But how? How do we face this terror?

For a man is mortal and can be gunned down.

Yet it only takes a man to win the battle.

A man to devote himself to the ideals

To be a light in this valley of darkness

To make himself a legend – an example

To remind us that ideas are bulletproof,

Ideas are eternal and last forever

Even after the man, who gave them is lost in memory

Ideas will live on in the hearts of men.

Remember words offer a means to meaning.

They form perspectives and visions.

Take these ideals, live them, and become incorruptible.

Long live revolution – The revolution of Hope, not of blood.

Remember there is still good in humanity.

Find it in your brothers and sisters.

Take it, preserve it, and let it prosper.

Water it with love and friendship.

Watch it flower the seeds of hope in man.

Let the children play in the grounds again.

Let the birds of peace fly again.

Let joy, happiness, love and comfort hold sanctuaries

In the heart of our descendants, generations hence.

Let us end the days of darkness.

There is a bright day and a new joy

O’er the horizon after the storm.

I lay down my life for that better world.

Where the man comes before money.

Where no man will cry out in agony.

Where love is the religion of all.

Where peace and justice will be more than just a word

But a perspective and a way of life!

I lay down my life for that world.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do,

Than I have ever done

 It is a far, far better rest I go to,

Than I have ever known”

                                                                                                             Elvin Johnpaul 

"This is the poem that won me the 1st prize in the English poetry writing competition in the Kerala University Youth Festival 2015 held on 18th March 2015 at FMNC Kollam "