Biographical information about David Roberts can be found by clicking here.

 

 

Note on There will be Peace:

I realised that my poem "There will be no peace" which appeared in my volume of Kosovo War Poetry was entirely negative and that it could be the opposite. So this is a re-write of my 1999 poem written just after the Kosovo war, but partly with the conflict and people of Northern Ireland in mind.

DR

 

There Will Be Peace

 

There will be peace:

 

when attitudes change;

when self-interest is seen as part of common interest;

when old wrongs, old scores, old mistakes

        are deleted from the account;

when the aim becomes co-operation and mutual benefit

        rather than revenge or seizing maximum personal

       or group gain;

when justice and equality before the law

        become the basis of government;

when basic freedoms exist;

when leaders  -  political, religious, educational  -  and  

       the police and media

        wholeheartedly embrace the concepts

        of justice, equality, freedom, tolerance, and

reconciliation

        as a basis for renewal;

when parents teach their children new ways to think

       about people.

 

There will be peace:

when enemies become fellow human beings.

 

David Roberts

November 2003

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Shall we remember what war is?

 

Each Remembrance Day

shall we remember what war is?

 

What is war?

In the human psyche

it is the fatal flaw,

a perversion of the human mind,

using our greatest brains to create

a threat to all mankind.

 

War is

the profoundest disrespect

for the sanctity

of human life,

the ultimate in racism,

the collapse of morality.

 

War is

the ultimate in criminality,

the ultimate obscenity,

the ultimate crime against humanity.

 

So shall we honour war?

and shall we now praise broken men?

And shall we remember what war is

and give true meaning

to "Never again?"

 

David Roberts
28 September 04

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Remembrance Day 2004

 

Remembrance Day 2004.

More British soldiers dead

In another British war.

 

Yesterday some of their parents

In anguish and anger went to Downing Street

To lay a wreath

To lay the blame

At the door

Of the man most responsible

For our latest war.

 

But their sons are gone.

 

And Iraq's cities are in ruins.

In many thousands Iraq, too, has lost its sons.

Their sons are gone, their children maimed.

Chaos and trauma are everywhere.

For the shattering of this nation

We share the blame.

 

No fine words can give these crimes

The slightest gloss.

 

Parents grieve. Such a quantity of grief.

Such needless destruction. Such needless pain.

Parents grieve.

Let us reflect on

Their needless loss.

 

Let us reflect on their needless loss.

 

David Roberts

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Many more poems to be added to this page (June 2019)