“THAT WE SURVIVE”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 59, 6 December 1946, Page 3

“THAT WE SURVIVE”

Crashing shell and flaming hell Hideous, drone of bombers’ flight Deaths’ icy hand on land and sea, Cities—torches of the night. Civilisation locked in battle, Bleeding from a million wounds; Man, bewildered, grimly wond'ring As he plunges thru’. the gloom, “When will chaos turn to Order Can carnage once again give room To life, abundant, free, untrammelled, And hope be chiselled on the tomb Of blasted dreams of Brotherhood; That men thru calvary should see The folly of Inhumanity, And purged in War’s Inferno, rise To greater heights than ere aspired; Seeking ever the common good, Building a lasting Brotherhood.” Comes at last, the ceasing Of bitter, bloody strife; Humanity grasps wearily To clutch the threads of Life That scattered, lie. And in the awful stillness That whispers, “I am Peace,” Seeks v/ith trembling fingers To weave a pattern new From shredded tattered remnants, And blend them with the thoughts that grew, When all seemed lost, Save Hope’s vitalising spark That beckoned as it glimmered, In the Dark. ( From Travail—thru the stillness Man—to survive, Must seek the common good. On the Banner of the future, Blazoned be one simple word, Humanity’s survival and salvation, “Brotherhood!” W. R. Whiteside, Whakatane.