PERASKIN

.
I run across the gentle down,
To reach the shining sea,
For the waters of Peraskin
Constantly call to me.

Just a little way to Westward
The baby seals play:
Their haunting voices drift across the bay.

By the waters of Peraskin
I dreamed a dream one day:

The sky above and the earth below,
And by my side the swelling sea
All joined in choral symphony,
That made the spirit in me glow,
And filled my heart with peace.

I slept; and oh, the Earth was singing
As I lay upon its breast:
Its joyful song was ringing through my rest.

I dreamt; and then I heard a different sound:
Children shrieking from their wounds,
And left alone to die.

I dreamt that tanks were grinding,
Grinding through my dream;
I heard my loved ones' voices,
Saw them start to scream.

And madmen chanted hatred
In their castle in the East,
As huge unwilling legions
Crunched their gory feast,
As doing what they knew was wrong,
They sang the tyrants' hideous song.

I woke; and only gulls were calling,
As they flew across the sky;
Their soft white wings were shining,
As they glided by.

A girl was walking on the sand,
Her sun-warmed limbs all golden,
As she ran beside the sea;
And there was only beauty
All around me.

The waters of Peraskin
In tiny wavelets roll,
And pour their gentle beauty on my soul

But a thousand miles to Eastward
The hosts of missiles wait
For the word that will destroy us,
Fuelled with hate.

By the waters of Peraskin
On that calm Western shore,
I dream my dreams no more.

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Note: this poem was written at the height of the cold war.