JOAN OF ARC(Written at sixteen).
Today I die Today I die I remember when I first heard them in the green meadows of my home,
St Catherine beckoned me, Saint Michael and Saint Margaret told me, ‘Drive the English out, drive them out from France.’ They said destiny chose me They said God chose me I, Jeanne, unschooled Jeanne A peasant’s daughter a maid with no touch of man
Why chose me? A girl to lead armies, A girl to hold a lance A girl to command men Why me? Why did it have to be me?
I love the Lord, I love his saints, I love my land But I am afraid So afraid For today, today I burn at the stake
I am but nineteen.
my heart beats against my chest like a caged dove beating its wings I never thought of death when I heard voices that day
The saints gave me light a new life But it’s dark now I don’t want to die
They’ve come now to lead me away; Goodbye France, goodbye life; Goodbye dungeon, last earthly home My hopes and dreams are all behind me now.
I walk, my head held high the cheerless crowd stare at me, their thoughts fly at me So, this is Jeanne d’Arc? Or Joan of Arc As the English say Is she a witch Or a saint? Soon my death will tell
Soldiers tie me to the stake A thousand memories crowd my mind Then the fire, the awful agony of dying I smell my burning flesh I scream out the name of God
It comes to me why I must die so young
I ride at the head of the battlefield I ride for the freedom of France I ride for home following light so bright into eternity.
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JEANNE D’ARC(Written decades later).History must be understood in its context What did I know at sixteen? Less than I know now but still a lot History was always my learning fount
Jeanne d’Arc Drew me the teenager me in This young French woman dead at the hand of men She wore armour And commanded even a king But when she lost her battle they hurled her into prison a maid but English soldiers soon rectified that
Rape: too long a cultural measure for returning women to their place.
Jeanne d’Arc: a visionary a freedom fighter willing to die for France to win its war that’s what we remember now.
These things happened in history. But I cannot believe she deserved her end
History must be understood in its context It was not unusual for a woman in these times a woman refusing silence to be feared or believed a witch
Or for a woman to be raped or to die tied to a stake their flesh eaten by flames
War is War those who live by the sword die by the sword so they say History Must be understood in its context The past has its excuse that it is the past
I think of all the women then and now killed by men raped by men (a vile way some men have to remind women of their true power) I think of thousands dead because we repeat the failures of the past
I think it is well past time To learn from history Surely we are capable of that? Believe in Heaven? that’s no reason to make Hell on Earth.
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