For those who don't read the comments on a post, these words of Gerry Loose were left as a comment by my comrade Loam, on the previous post about the Faslane protest. I found the words beautiful and inspiring and in my own small way thought I would try to scatter these, "seeds and syllables" a little bit further. Words are tools and can be used to fight our battles, help our ideas to grow, inspire others to action, comfort us in hard times, show others our dreams, link us in camaraderie.
"Of course, I am a poet, not a fool. I do not think a poem will defeat a bullet; But it can affect the thinking of the man whose finger is on the trigger. I have read my work at the gates of Faslane, home to the British fleet of submarine nuclear weapons. There, among crowds, there are soldiers and policemen who stop and listen. Where could my words end up in their heads? When your loved ones approach, afraid of the darkness? I have toured the atomic weapons testing sites of the US deserts, leaving seeds and syllables - seeds of peace, and again, where those weapons were used in Japan. It is not because I am brave (I am not), but that I am human and like everyone I have met, I deplore war and do whatever is in my power, as a person of peace, as a poet, to speak against her and make people gather, to act in reconciliation".
Gerry Loose
