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.
It wept by
the waters of Babylon,
And when all
men were a loss,
It screeched
in writhing agony,
And it hung
bleeding from the Cross.
It died in
Rome by lion and sword,
And in
defiant cruel array,
When the
deathly word was 'Spartacus'
Along with
Appian Way.
It marched
with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And
frightened lord and king,
And it was
emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a
living thing.
It smiled in
holy innocence,
Before
conquistadors of old,
So meek and
tame and unaware,
Of the
deathly power of gold.
It burst
forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed
the old Bastille,
And marched
upon the serpent's head,
And crushed
it 'neath its heel.
It died in
blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved
by moons of rain,
Its heart
was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will
come to rise again.
It screamed
aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was
knelt upon the ground,
And it died
in great defiance,
As they
coldly shot it down.
It is found
in every light of hope,
It knows no
bounds nor space
It has risen
in red and black and white,
It is there
in every race.
It lies in
the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams
in tyrants' eyes,
It has
reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes
searing 'cross the skies.
It lights
the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders
forth its might,
It is 'the
undauntable thought', my friend,
That thought
that says 'I'm right! '
