Justice

The Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa & Polynesia

Select topics to browse

Close

Blair Giles: Army

By / 4 April 2007

army – a song for parihaka
blair giles © 2000

Download here:army.mp3

i should have warned you
i should have taken you aside

bring your army, cos this is big
and it’s taking its toll on me
my hand won’t fit in your glove
bring your army, and let us see if we can’t
defend this edge of humanity
the land was progress

1.jpgsend out the sentinels, little boys with feathers in hand
march past the girls whose daddies didn’t sign

i said bring your army
all rifles and jelly babies to the scene
where the mountain stood silent in the background
bring your army
will we be tested on those pages that were glued long ago?
believing noise was progress

send out the sentinels, little boys with feathers in hand
march past the girls whose daddies didn’t sign

now that you’ve been emptied
now that you’ve been emptied of language
and cooled of warmth, pulled down south
now that you’ve been emptied
now that you’ve been emptied of language
and cooled of warmth, dragged down south
you, can i say you and me are the same?
a hand on the plough and a heart in the throat

send out those sentinels, little boys with feathers in their hands
and march past the girls skipping, whose daddies didn’t sign

i should have warned you
i should have taken you aside

Facebook comments:

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

About us

This site is run by the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church.

We seek to nurture justice spirituality and imagination, and engage in advocacy in all areas of life, overcoming poverty and transforming violence.

We encourage people to think and live “justly”, and emphasise debate and action on local, national and global issues.

Although we are Anglican, our vision isn’t so much about being Anglican. It’s about living justly. Justice is about how you live your life, and being just where we are. Working together, we can all flourish.

×

Just Booklets Mailing List

Just Booklets produced by the Justice Commission appear as booklets  and study guides around a variety of important and engaging topics – food, gardening, peace, lignite, with many more to come. From now on, they will be coming directly to you.

Just Living Booklets are subscription-only publications, so if you or your church want copies, sign up! There is no charge. Simple as that.

You might like to consider becoming a contact person/distributor to help raise awareness of Just Booklets  in your church or organisation.If you have an idea for a booklet, or even the desire to write. We seek to draw upon the expertise of the whole church. If you’d like to share your story about some aspect of justice or injustice, or some story about your passions and/or your life, email or call Anthony.