Being Alone Is More Common Than We Think

When a people live with open conflict
and are the minority/weaker party
they are quite right to feel afraid
at how they might be miscast
for their role in conflicts
they did not start and can't end. 

But, like faith, and like fear,
feeling as if you are in a minority is a fact of life. 

The scale of faith to fear is one of the many scales
on which we find ourselves tested,
particularly when we are a minority,
where only posterity shows the result.

The Hope of Peace

Nobody knows if there is a next life,
and if there is what it might be like.

But if there is a paradise, and I am invited,
I am stating now the terms on which
I expect it to work if I am to join it.

It has to be a place of infinite co-equality,
everyone with everybody else, species co-mingling.

It has to a place where there are no honours
no conspicuous military bravery,
nor even any militarism on display,
where the point of peace is proved
through the means by which it is achieved.