Helping Hands

Helping Hands

Hurting people
And their hurting lands
Can’t we put together,
Our helping hands?

And lift each other
Up and find,
That we can bring
A little peace of mind.

With the Fires Down Under and
Rowing Rohingya out to sea?
They need our help,
Are we too blind too see?

Or the hills in Pakistan,
Where the Taliban roam?
Forcing all the school girls
To just go home?

It might seem messy,
Down in the slums,
Getting our hands dirty,
Working with bums’? –

We gotta challenge those stereotypes
You see that they are people also,
Though you live a life more
Fortunate than they do.

There’s so much difference one life can be,
Working with our hands, or down on our knees.
If you got faith, than put it work—
There’s a task to do with our helping hands.


-- Greg Butz
February 9, 2009

This poem contains just a few reflections on the current situations and crises around the world. Currently as I type, there are fires raging out of control in Australia, Thailand’s military are rowing Rohingya boat people-- who are Refugees -- out to sea and setting them afloat, the Taliban are blowing up schools in Pakistan for the only reason that girls attend, and there are too many people to count in the cities that need help. This isn’t the most sophisticated of poems that I’ve ever written, but I do hope the message is poignant. What can I do? I think that I keep going back to this question. Is there something that I can do?