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Monthly Archives: January 2026

We must remember

Not as stone remembers rain
but as skin remembers fire,
the way a name once spoken can still bruise the air
History is not a museum with clean glass,
it breathes, it waits,
it hums in the wires above our streets
and in the silence after a door shuts too hard
Hands have built hospitals and cages,
the same hands,
fingers that can cradle a child
or sign a list that turns people into numbers
Do not look away,
forgetting is a luxury paid for by the broken
memory is the candle we keep lit
even when the room wants darkness
We remember the trains that did not ask questions,
the ships that mistook profit for prayer,
the borders drawn like scars
across living, speaking hearts
This is not about guilt alone,
it is about vigilance,
about love standing guard through the night
with tired eyes and an unyielding spine
Because the past is patient,
it will repeat itself softly at first,
a joke, a shrug, a rule,
until cruelty feels normal and silence feels safe
So we remember, loudly and tenderly,
we say the names, we tell the stories,
we teach our children that dignity is not divisible
and humanity is not a trend
Memory is an act of hope,
a refusal to let tomorrow be built
with the same old knives
We remember,
so that kindness stays awake
and the world, bruised but breathing,
gets another chance to choose better
JH

 
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Posted by on January 27, 2026 in Uncategorized

 

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Arrive without armour

They arrive without armour,
hands open, eyes wide,
the world pouring in before they know its weight.

They do not choose the noise,
the smoke in the air,
the rules written long before their names.
They simply arrive,
trusting us with everything.

We forget how much power sits in grown hands,
how every word becomes a lesson,
how every silence teaches too.
We forget that children read the world
by watching our mouths, our choices,
our excuses.

They come clean of our grudges,
unstained by borders or blame,
asking only for room to grow,
for truth that does not bruise,
for love that does not disappear when it is inconvenient.

It is not enough to say
we did our best.
The future does not run on intentions.
it runs on care,
on courage,
on adults who stay awake.

Because innocence is not weak,
it is borrowed light,
and we are its keepers for a while.

What we build now
becomes their normal.
What we excuse now
becomes their burden.

So let us be steady,
let us be kind in ways that cost something,
let us leave fewer wounds than we inherited.

They are watching,
learning how to be human from us.
And the least we can do
is make the lesson worth remembering.

JH

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2026 in poetry

 

No Right No Left

There should not be a left
or a right
Only a circle
where we sit close enough
to feel each other breathe
Politics learned the language of corners
sharp words
pointing fingers
maps drawn with rulers instead of hands
But the heart has no party
it votes every morning
for warmth
for safety
for the simple miracle of being seen
A border is just a sentence
written by fear
it says stop
it says yours not mine
it forgets the grammar of kindness
We are made of shared weather
shared grief
shared laughter spilling over pavements
like rain that refuses to choose a country
Imagine power that listens
laws that kneel to humanity
flags lowered just enough
to wrap the cold
Respect is not radical
Care is not naïve
They are ancient
older than slogans
older than walls
There should not be a left
or a right
only forward
together
hands open
voices softer
eyes brave enough to recognise themselves
in everyone else
A future where we do not win over each other
but with each other
where the loudest statement
is how gently
we choose to live
JH

 
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Posted by on January 20, 2026 in poetry

 

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Choose a path

Choose the path that lets your spirit breathe,

Stand with your friends where honesty is kind,

What serves your heart will gently serve them too,

In caring for yourself, you leave light behind.

JH

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2026 in poetry

 

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