I wrote the following poem for my book In a World of Tears and Sorrow, having primarily in mind at the time the people of Syria and the devastating civil war that has so long raged in that country. Today though, as Russia pushes further and further into Ukraine, the words apply increasingly to the plight of the Ukrainian people, faced by the horror of war, with all the destruction, sorrow and suffering that inevitably brings. The poem reminds us of their plight and that of so many others in our world, each pleading ‘May the bloodshed cease’. Use it to inspire your own prayer and to ask the same of God in an ever more desperate situation.
Tell me that you’ve heard about the tears we’ve shed
Tell me that you’ve heard about the tears we’ve shed.
Tell me that you grieve for all those lying dead.
Show, at least, you sometimes pause to wonder why;
that our anguish hasn’t simply passed you by.
Tell me that you yearn to see the bloodshed cease.
Tell me that you’ll join with those who work for peace.
Prove you really care about the state we’re in;
that the change we long to see may yet begin.
Tell me that you’ve heard our people’s frantic pleas,
Tell me that you’ve seen the plight of refugees.
Show to those surviving in the combat zone,
that they’re not just left abandoned – on their own.
Tell me there’s a reason still for looking forward;
that our future hasn’t simply been ignored.
Give us hope, in all with which we must contend,
that our wretchedness somehow may end.