Words & Music: Pat Drummond.
Dateline : 27/10/2008 Barmah State Park, Victoria

In a world torn by pre-emptive military interventions andterrorist strikes, it's easy to forget the hard-won lessons of the great non-violent activists who have been my life-long heroes. A song written on the moonlit banks of The Murray River in Yorta Yorta Country after hearing a distressing ABC newscast from the Iraq invasion zone. My heart is always with the victims, whether they suffer at the hands of the terrorists or the military.

These are the times when the tyrants are rising

albeit by different names

As we stand at the edge of the chasm of death

staring down into the flames

But just when it seems that the demons are darkest

just when I fear I can't cope

I am touched to the power of Love and Irrational Hope


How have we forgotten in one generation

the sacrifice, struggle and pain?

so that we forfiet our freedoms because we are frightened

and turn to such violence again?

But in the face of the force of the bomb and the bayonet

the torturers cell and the rope

I still believe in the power of Love and Irrational Hope


Though it don't make good sense

and it don't make good science

to look in the eyes of your foe

to seek for the spark of the shimmering heart

that he struggles so hard not to show

But it vanquished the Romans

and drove back the British

as Jesus and Ghandi would know

there is so much to be said still for Love and Irrational Hope

On nights in the darkness

when my broken heart wishes

only for sleep's sweet relief

I wonder if I'll ever be reconciled

to this cycle of violence and grief

But just when I feel that the darkness surrounds me

when my heart and my spirit can't cope

I am saved by the sweet kiss of

Love and Irrational Hope

I am still drawn to the power of Love and Irrational Hope

I still believe the promise of Love and Irrational Hope

I still belong to the promise of Love and Irrational Hope