Seeking Refuge. J.R.Poulter

The poem below talks about the plight of the refugee, a terrible ordeal experienced by too many people in too many countries across the world. The refugee is a person haunted. They are fleeing danger or deprivation or both. They are strangers in a strange land, the target of suspicion and often resentment of folk in communities they travel through and folk into whose communities they flee.  It is my personal plea for understanding towards such desperate people. It is especially my plea for those who flee having only the clothes on their back or what they can carry. It is my prayer that the international community will increase its endeavours to aid such folk. You can down load this poem, which has been beautifully illustrated and formatted into a poster by Ashley Letizia, by going to Sharing Books [www.sharing-books.com].

The Refugee  by J.R.Poulter

To where are you running, Suzanna, Suzanna?

‘To somewhere far, far, far away…

To somewhere tomorrow is safety

And melts  all the pains of today.’

From what are you running so swiftly?

‘From all that’s unknown and I dread,

From all of the nightmares and all of the thoughts

That clamor and crowd in my head.’

How has the present beset you,

That you run without knowing, my girl,

That it’s made your past rack and ruins

Upturned all your ken of the world?

‘I was caged by their harsh words and whispers,

The jibes and the taunts and the jeers,

In the end, even shadows were pointing

And the windows were furtive with stares.’

Why are you running Suzanna, Suzanna?

I could not bear the searching

their prying with their eyes,

Their faces smiled but all the while

It was a lying guise.

You will tire, you can not run forever,

When will you know you are free?

‘Ah sir, kind sir, I will run and run still

Till the fear in my heart lets me be.’