there is a place
beyond the border
where love grows
and where peace
is not the frozen silence . . .
to get to that place you have to
go or be pushed out
beyond the borders,
to where it is lonely, fearful,
threatening, unknown.
only after you have wandered
for a long time in the dark
do you begin to bump into others
also branded, exiled,
border crossers,
and find you walk on
common ground.
it is not an easy place to be,
this place beyond the borders.
but it is a good place to be.
Kathy Galloway
(the above is an extraction - see first comment below for the full piece)
1 comment:
Cross-border Peace Talks
(Dedicated to the Corrymeela Community)
There is a place
beyond the borders
where love grows,
and where peace is not the frozen silence
drifting across no man’s land
from two heavily defended
entrenchments,
but the stumbling, stammering attempts of long-closed throats
to find words to bridge the distance;
neither is it a simple formula
that reduces everything to labels,
but an intricate and complex web of feeling and relationship
which spans a wider range than you’d ever thought possible.
That place is not to be found on the map
of government discussions
or political posturing.
It does not exist within the borders of
Catholic or Protestant,
Irish or British,
male or female,
old or young.
It lies beyond,
and is drawn with different points of reference.
To get to that place,
you have to go
(or be pushed out)
beyond the borders,
to where it is lonely, fearful, threatening,
unknown.
Only after you have wandered for a long time
in the dark,
do you begin to bump into others,
also branded,
exiled,
border-crossers,
and find you walk on common ground.
It is not an easy place to be,
this place beyond the borders.
It is where you learn that there is more pain in love than in hate,
more courage in forbearance than in vengeance,
more remembering needed in forgetting,
and always new borders to cross.
But it is a good place to be.
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