there was a time
when I who was
who I was then
walked and sang
only
injustice
fought my fight
shouting amidst
the blackness

so how can I now
sitting by lemon-green waters
or in green mountains
warmed by an April sun
reconcile
myself as I am now
with he who fought so long
amid the darkness
against injustice

that contented man who now
the mirror shows me
that man who now
pitches his tent
beside the waters
of a more
Arcadian sea
how can I be that same he
who once ‘the conscience of
a nation stirred’?

a voice answers
there came the day
you learned with pain
that he who touches pitch
will become himself defiled
that in fighting ugliness
you had yourself become ugly
and, despite all the evils in it
the world remains a place
where beauty can be achieved

you knew already that
a man is ennobled
by fighting evil
where he finds it
now it was time to learn that
it is also necessary for a man
to find peace within himself
which then may be contagious

to seek to put oneself alright
to find a pattern in just one day
this can be a sacrament
so, after many years
fighting the negative
a man may seek
to ally himself with
the positive.

‘Questions’ By Jeremy Sandford
www.jeremysandford.org.uk