Chains No Voice
Eyes that look
No longer seeing
Blankness stares back.
I long to reach out to touch your skin
Your life, your soul
To warm the coldness that surrounds
Bones that are weary and sore
Chained to others.
No choices, No voice, No seeing.
I see you and controlled silence supports you
Drowning in the waters of oppression
This is your food to eat
It is the water you drink.
And we are blind
We see you, yet we have not seen.
© Shefali Hollis
Chains are just rings
Chains are just rings
Linked together
Loop around a loop
Circle encircling a circle
Like hands joined and held firm in life’s dance
Around and around.
A chain of prayers will surround the earth and return
To the beginning
Empowering each of us and capturing the chains.
© Barbara Rolison
Chains
Binding us together
Chains to hold on to,
Guiding us along life’s paths.
Hold on too tight, and they start to bind us.
Family chains— recognising DNA patterns,
All through time, and our history
Spreading on into the future.
Passing on the links of family chains, on to the next generation.
Christ came to break the chains of
poverty and slavery.
Of wars and violence. Your chains.
He hung on a cross and died for
the chains inherent in society.
Where, oh where is freedom,
Can we recognise and know those destructive chains,
With His help, can they be removed.
Can we be free to be the grains of sand,
tossed in the tide, blown in the wind.
As we are tossed and blown, do we share, care and love each other,
Does His spirit set us free ?
To be open, set free, accepting
Of who and where we are.
Our chains falling off
Free to be who we are created to be,
By the Creator of all.
© Jenny English
They Knit and they Natter
Because they care
And the chains reflect
That they see and it says
You matter.
Chains of all colours, caste and creed
Reaching around the world
To all the enslaved
And crying in need
They see you, hear you and want to free you.
And so they knit and they natter
To remind themselves and others
That you are not forgotten
You matter.
© Shefali Hollis
Tunes of Change
We are all children of God
Bells are there to be rung
Ring the changes
Far and Wide
Cut the chains
That strangle and bind
Keep the chains that bind us together
In love and true action
Let the tunes be loud and clear
Throughout the whole world.
© Helen McNicholl