The Wars We Make
by Nicholas Peters
I gaze into the world with sorrowing eyes
And see the wide-abounding fruits of hate.
We fight, we say, for peace, and find
The wars we make
to be a spring of hate and source of future war.
Is there no peace for man?
No hope that this accursed flow
Of blood may cease?
Is this our destiny: to kill and maim
For peace?
Or is this "peace" we strive to gain
A thin, unholy masquerade
Which, when our pride, our greed, our gain is
touched too far,
Is shed, and stands uncovered, what we are?
Show me your light, O God
That I may fight for peace with peace
And not with war;
To prove my love with love,
And hate no more!
This poem was written in 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II, and was published in a collection of Nicholas Peters' work entitled Another Morn. Peters emigrated to Canada from Russia in 1925 and lived for some years in Grande Pointe, Man. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942 and was killed March 7, 1945 when his aircraft was hit by enemy fire. He is buried at Eltsdorf, Germany.
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