Fertile Ground / No Place For Hate – A Poem by Julie Clark

No Place For Hate, Charlottesville, Virginia

No Place For Hate, Charlottesville, Virginia

What is this fertile ground

Where hoods are removed

And torches lit?

Where these actions and words

Of violence and hate

Reverberate across the earth?

Where radicalized 20 year olds

Fed on hate

Can take extreme views

To their conclusions and kill?

 

Is this an exposure

For all to see

The faulty foundations

In need of repair?

We cannot move forward

Until we address

The underlying decay

Made evident by recent events

 

Is it force upon force,

Violence answering violence

That will do this work?

No, that will only destroy

What is good and best

 

Instead

Call the elders

Listen to the truly wise

Study their words and their works

The ones who know how to love

To overcome evil with good

To push back darkness with light

The ones who have done this work

Can shine a light that we all

Can follow.
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