Kate O'Neil
  • About Kate
  • Poems for Children I
    • Gargoyle Guile
    • A Fairy's Day
    • Wynken,Blynken and Nod
    • Emergency!
    • Waiting for James
    • Blue Jeans Rap
    • Bedtime Boogie
    • Decibel
    • The Scared Scarecrow
    • Auntie Jean
    • Maximouse
    • Telling the Fleas
    • The Means of Grace
    • Worm-Farm Blues
    • Liar BIrd
  • Poems for Children II
    • Class Rules
    • Scribbly Gums
    • The Back of Beyond
    • Thackaringas
    • Barefoot
    • Mango Spell
    • Coo-ee
  • Poems for Children III
    • The Reading Bug Explorer
    • Mutt Sings the Blues
    • Tree-Toad Tragedy (for Troy)
    • Sea Sparkle
    • The Kid from Camdenville
    • The Yarn of Shaun the Sheep
  • Poems starring Prima Donna
    • Prima Donna and the School Uniform
    • Prima Donna and the Lollipop Man
    • Prima Donna Reviews the Zoo
    • Prima Donna Chooses a Pet
  • Poems from 'Let in the Stars'
    • High Achievers
    • Paragliders Bald Hill Lookout
    • Sondry Folk
  • Poems - Silly Stuff
    • Classy Darcy
    • Happy as Larry
    • Idyllicacryliclycralyric
    • Home Thoughts from Australia
    • Language Teachers
    • The Man Behind the Mower
    • Time Out
    • Twitterpation
    • Beetrootome
    • The Quick Brown Fox
    • Animal Feed Available at Restaurant
  • Poems - More Silly Stuff
    • Apples and Pears
    • Mind your Ps and Qs: A Cautionary Tale
    • UQ
  • Sydney Poems
    • Lament of the kangaroo gargoyle on the clock tower – Sydney University
    • “Giraffe Removals. All Suburbs.” (Sydney billboard)
    • Tom Ugly's Spirit Talks Back
    • Eternity
  • Other Poems
    • 'Skint' or 'The Win'
    • The Cynic Route
    • Man and Moonshine
    • The Touch-Lamp Christmas Angel
    • Cell Door Open
    • Sunflowers at Wilcannia
    • A wheatfield, very yellow...
    • Hills Hoist
    • Hosts
    • His Publisher to Adam
    • Imagine
    • Carnival of the Animals
  • Buzzings from the Bees in my Bonnet
    • On Being Elocuted
    • Poetry and the Role of the Toe in Scansion
    • Some Thoughts on teaching Don Quixote.
    • John Thelwall: “Citizen” John, political activist, atheist reprobate, acquitted felon, poet, Professor of Elocution and speech therapist.
    • On 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'
  • Contact Kate

IMAGINE

      
                           [Imagine] is anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic… but because it is sugar-coated, it is accepted.     John Lennon.

 
In Paris, in the House of God called St Etienne du Mont,
we join the audience for a concert of children’s choirs.
                                               One by one the small school-groups, colour-coded,                                                   
arrange themselves in their appointed order
and sing their chosen songs.
 
The concert ends with an anthem by the massed choir.
 
The conductor nods and the piano eddies soothingly
into John Lennon’s “Imagine”.
In English words not quite at home in French mouths,
the innocent voices of children invite us to
Imagine there’s no Heaven.
 
What? In this house? To imagine no heaven at all?
To imagine that heaven is neither here nor there?
No John. It’s not easy.
 
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
 
I’m distracted by noises behind me.
A parent grumbles and moves to the aisle for a better view -
He can’t see his boy.
 
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
 
There’s more shuffling for vantage points
as the music hoists the final triumphal vision like a flag –
And the world will live as one.
And as one we stand and applaud.
 
We know the argument’s flawed
but are lured by music.
We know there’d be no brotherhood of man
under no heaven.
The concert ends with prayer.
I close my eyes but ‘Amen’ sticks in my throat.
 
In a side aisle a woman lights a candle,
adds its brief glow to row upon row
of supplicant flames and bows her head.
She too is a dreamer - and not the only one.

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