Saturday, 24 September 2022

Tommy Douglas Lives Here

 


            Tommy Douglas Lives Here


            we, people, animals, flies

            are here together

            all sharing this planet

            in relationship to one another

            this depends on live and let live 

            world over and under, sky and rock

            together we have voice 

            and we have eyes

            the days of sun or snow

            only a lifetime to see — to 

            test the day with our best plans

            of how to raise children, care for

            our kin, our past and future

            character invested in present and past

            that each day comes from our conscience 

            matters for the present and future 

            is not a license but a duty

            how you or I achieved the good work

            we belong to one another and we 

            look — not turning our faces away

            after witnessing the body face down on

            the city sidewalk not breathing

            least of all they mattered, and we were

            fortunate for having them in our lives

            among the other kin who made

            us — who we are 

            not our possessions or trophies no matter

            how glossy they appear in magazines

            we can thank whoever 

            look to the centre of all things

            after losing someone precious

            ourselves.


Thomas Clement Douglas PC CC SOM (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist minister, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He left federal politics to become Leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan. His government introduced the continent's first single-payeruniversal health care program.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas




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