The Hong Kong Protest Hymn
The Christian hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” emerged
as anthem of the Hong Kong protests. It’s not yet expurged.
The hymn is heard almost nonstop at the main protest site,
in front of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council day and night.
The Christian hymn, composed by Linda-Stassen Benjamin,
repeated in a minor key, four stanzas, praise to Him,
possesses a surprising power on the hopeful groups
that number in the millions—peaceful democratic troops.
The bill was paused, but Carrie Lam, the chief executive,
will not be leaving. How long will the peace of Hong Kong live?
A Dragon
by Evan Mantyk
Hear the rumbling round the world
Of a dragon lying curled—
Not the red one we have seen;
This one has a golden sheen
And will rise to swiftly strike,
Sunder every wall and dike,
Drowning evil on the earth
And its young, though fresh from birth,
Bringing terror yet unknown
For the seeds that have been sown.
Remember nineteen eighty-nine,
The CCP’s side-splitting pranks,
The rolling flesh beneath those tanks,
The laugh-a-minute-riffle cracks,
The quickly wiped-out bloodline tracks,
Return to normal – all is fine –
Bring on the singing tourist line?
So long ago and far? – No,
I can hear the hounds of war
Leashed in kennels by the shore
No more than sixteen miles away
From Hong Kong’s street-filled feeding tray.
And mainland tappers can say no
To Hong Kong’s drinking water flow.
So here is clear and present threat
To Hong Kong’s long civility,
To open streets and speech that’s free.
And so they’re singing Christian hymns
To save the law and save their limbs,
To save them from the present threat,
And pray The Saviour won’t forget.
Here Hong Kong hosts a symptom stage –
As Mantyk says a dragon tenses,
Straining under Bad defences,
Hacking into hackled steel,
Metaphorical and real,
Ready to revoke like rage
The spirit-clawing, carnal age.
Wow! Many of the rhymes in both poems packed a punch, Damian, which is as I suppose you intended, and somehow you distracted me from the poems actually published on this site on this date. Back to them: They cover news of which I have not heard, but they paint a picture I can clearly see of people wishing to to be free. It’s a Declaration of Independence of a sort, which is probably not an innate feature of the average Chinese consciousness. But from little acorns giant oak trees grow.
Thanks, CB. Yes, these two poems are able to hit out because the two proper-published poems hold the important information and point in good directions.
Hong Kong has a foundation of open rule via the UK. It has missed a lot of communist infection until recently when the lease ran out.
To me, what is happening there is direct and decent democracy. It goes beyond what we have in the West where we may vote once in a few years and complain in the glow of tv news occasionally.
However, it takes sustained physical presence. Like them, we can use our prayers or sung determination to support them towards establishing their sapling oak of Independence.
And we can sign the online petitions.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/05/30/hundreds-petitions-appear-protest-hong-kongs-controversial-china-extradition-bill/
The “We the people” White House petition has timed out.
A broader UK one still open:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/233895?fbclid=IwAR1hEEzYALKXV47UV_0Z_wMYn2VscxGI5ILydLJFf2TlPrem2YLv_z6qEAU
and one for France [to revoke the Legion of Honour, one of France’s highest awards, for Carrie Lam] still open:
https://www.change.org/p/the-grand-chancery-of-the-legion-of-honor-revoke-hong-kong-chief-executive-carrie-lam-s-legion-of-honor-distinction-19c4dc0e-f0ca-433a-9496-08e6705dbdeb
Bottom line: we know our thoughts and prayers are powerful.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, has gone silent. She had apologised for her lack of consultation with the people of Hong Kong.
Protesters are still on the streets.
It’s worth keeping this comment section open.
Five years ago the CCP
Said each Hong Kong Executive
Requires a squeezing through its sieve.
Plain messages then spilled up walls
And humble crowds hummed freedom calls;
An eighty day umbrella spree
Protected Hong Kong’s liberty.
Then wiped; arrested; off the streets;
Thin tee-shirts ironed by riot shield.
The Triad/Party thugs congealed,
And Hong Kong leaders shared their crimes.
Behind the scenes, behind the times,
Policemen walk the Party’s beats.
Repression reaps its bleak repeats.
With worried thoughts I steer across
Trafalgar Square, in fresher air
With heart-filled hopes for over there.
I’m unabashed at British might
Marked over Nelson’s Column’s height:
Though Empire’s now bowed out as boss,
May Hong Kong thrive beyond this loss.
Re remark above being ‘unabashed at British might’ — UK/Britain is trying to keep to some responsibility on Hong Kong
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/03/foreign-office-calls-in-china-ambassador-over-hong-kong-protests
Also
http://www.visiontimes.com/2019/06/27/former-colonial-hong-kong-governor-says-britain-has-a-debt-of-honor.html?fbclid=IwAR19tr0YR5iNZQsAkbiSxLA6Y0lkwSZB53_UiUJStM1SyMrdNGRlNUTIhHU