Right Human – A Dedication to Justice Michael Kirby

Many years ago I sent a batch of my poems to Justice Michael Kirby the former High Court Justice of Australia. A much loved Judge who is well known for his compassion and human rights approaches. Over the course of his life he has been a significant reformer, always with a foucs on human benefit.

This poem he told me was his favourite, so I publish it as a dedication to such a wonderful man.

RIGHT HUMAN

Human rights,
Is it wrong?
To give something that is …

Inherent,
Inalienable,
Cellular,
Spiritual,
Spectacular,

From the heights
Of human evolution.

Universal declaration,
Universal separation,
The nation state,
Draws its boundary line,
The line of contention,
Full of suspicion,
What a pity,
We need an international treaty,
It seems quite a feat just to get
Agreement.

A world fragmenting into the struggle for power,
A figment of the imagination goes sour,
It is now the hour,
To move realism to the side,
To step away from pride,
Economic rationalism is irrational and insane,
Taking the link from the food chain,
Joy out of work becomes a strain,
The missing link,
Doesn’t look back to where it has been,
And look within.

The microcosm feeds the macrocosm,
It is really the human face,
The character is the letter of the law,
What for?
Go to principle,
It is simple,
Shine the torch of peace within,
When the other loses,
There is no win,
Ever.

The book is old,
Cobwebs grow where interest used to be,
A universal covenant,
A sacred vowel,
Inherently true,
Was sacred between me and you,
We saw the reflection
Of the one,
In the two,
The community came soon,
Now the holocaust looms.

The tiger runs from the mouse,
It is determined and meek,
But roars when it squeaks,
It’s deterrence is bluff,
It feels raw and sharp,
It is driving us to the end of the cliff of possible futures,
It is consumed with its passion,
We are going to crash on the rocks of denial,
In single file,
We march off the pier,
So insincere,
So mislead,
Cyber noise incessantly fed.

When the ending is the beginning,
Loving is winning,
Polarities diffused into the ether,
Where success is normal weather,
Climate change stays the same,
The game is of win win,
Our family is kin.

In your alms,
My freedom takes flight
On the kite of your support,
The winds rustle my hair,
With you I don’t care
We’re important,
We dare.