The Rythm of Time

Bobby Sands

The Rhythm Of Time

There's an inner thing in every man,

Do you know this thing my friend?

It has withstood the blows of a million years,

And will do so to the end.

It was born when time did not exist,

And it grew up out of life,

It cut down evil's strangling vines,

Like a slashing searing knife.

It lit fires when fires were not,

And burnt the mind of man,

Tempering leandened hearts to steel,

From the time that time began.

A Sad State Of Freedom

Nazim Hikmet

You waste the attention of your eyes,

the glittering labour of your hands,

and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves

of which you'll taste not a morsel;

you are free to slave for others--

you are free to make the rich richer.

The moment you're born

they plant around you

mills that grind lies

lies to last you a lifetime.

You keep thinking in your great freedom

a finger on your temple

free to have a free conscience.

Letters from a Man in Solitary

Nazim Hikmet

I carved your name on my watchband

with my fingernail.

Where I am, you know,

I don't have a pearl-handled jackknife

(they won't give me anything sharp)

  or a plane tree with its head in the clouds.

Trees may grow in the yard,

but I'm not allowed

    to see the sky overhead.....

Your Letter Is Delightful

by Breyten Breytenbach

your letter is delightful, larger and lighter
than thoughts of a flower when the dream
is the earth of the garden,
as your letter opens
there is an unfolding of sky, of word from the outside
of ample spaces,