Poetry by Alastair McIntyre
A Lost World

A new century we've now begun
Yet wars and pestilence still occur.
The tower of babel still exists
All despite our hi-tech skills.

In olden days they built big structures
And created cities full of wonders.
They moved large stones a hundred miles
And created cities in the mountains.

Religion spawned a thousand wars
Yet we still spawn a thousand fanatics.
You'd think we'd have learned by now
That all Gods ask is peace and goodwill.

Can it be that the human race is still evolving
Making the same mistakes after all these years.
Losing the skills our forefathers taught us
Forgetting the lessons after all this time.

We wonder still about the Picts of Scotland
Where the race was strong and yet mysterious.
What of those marvellous standing stones
Is there a lesson still to be learned.

How is it that Scotland produced so many people
Of learning, vision and distinction.
That contributed so much to the world
From a very small distant population.

What of those missing races around the world
From Atlantis to mysterious South Americans.
They have left traces of their civilisations
But we still don't understand their heritage.

Today we seem to have lost our wonder
Of the world around us and what it teaches us.
Instead we evolved human rights for everyone
And lost the ability to understand our brother.

We have the absolute right to hurt other people
Because the laws protects our right to injure.
We enjoy the right of having free speech
No matter who we hurt by using it.

Today our media controls our thinking
We are only allowed to know what they tell us.
They pump garbage into our homes
And that is how we are evolving.

Where are the people of vision and courage
Can they now be heard above the din of garbage.
Are we so conditioned that we no longer seek
The understanding and changes we must make.

We have looked at the stars for generations
And now we can reach to those stars.
But the people that now control us are blind
And simply look to their own needs not ours.

We created the Internet and the world wide web
It was to be a place we could freely communicate.
A place where we could talk and learn together
But despite this advantage we get brochures instead.

So with all we could do with this new technology
Our masters have succeeded on dumbing us down.
They'd rather discuss pornography than visions
And talk about problems instead of hope for the future.

There is so much to learn out there in the world
If we really started talking and learning together.
Perhaps we'd discover what our forefathers left us
And together build a better life for our sons and daughters.