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Roger Oldfield is a Quaker and last year he protested against nuclear weapons at Faslane. After sitting in the road he was arrested for 'A Breach of the Peace'. He intended to read the following in court, but although the magistrate read it before passing sentence, he was not allowed to.

I would like to show the legal and moral justifications for my actions by reading a poem, which will last about 7 minutes; I hope this is acceptable. I won't elaborate afterwards, but I would like to make some brief preliminary points, particularly about the title, which is 'Cranes over the Sow' ·

• The poem is addressed to a girl called Sadako, who was 2 when the atom bomb with the macabre nickname 'Little Boy' fell on her home town, Hiroshima. When she was 11 she found she had leukemia from radiation from the bomb. She set herself to make 1000 paper cranes, but only achieved 644 by the time she died at the age of 12. Her story has helped to make the crane a symbol of international peace. ·

• The idea of using cranes as a symbol also came from the name of Alison Crane, whom you may have come across in this court. Alison has played a big part in the Trident Ploughshares campaign, which asserts, as you know, that Britain's nuclear weapons are illegal and which aims to disarm these weapons by peaceful direct action. Alison and I live in the same town, Stafford, and that is where my hopes and fears for my children are focused. Stafford lies by the River Sow, and is referred to in the poem as 'Sowside'. ·

• The poem also refers to phrases in a famous Old Testament passage: ·
• first '... they shall beat their swords into ploughshares', a metaphor for peace-making ·
• and second '... they shall sit every man under his vine and fig tree'. This image, of every person having equal freedom to sit peacefully under his or her own vine and fig tree, expresses a vision of a world where justice and peace rule. In my poem I've made the fig tree into an apple tree, as that is more appropriate for Sowside. ·

• I hope that you will accept that none of the challenges in this poem are intended to be in any way personal. They relate rather to the roles which all of us in this court are playing. As a Quaker, I feel that it is my role here today to try in my own little way to 'speak truth to power'.

CRANES OVER THE SOW

Sadako, we gave you leukaemia 
When 'Little Boy' fell from the plane 
But you dreamt a new Hiroshima 
And papered the world with your cranes 
So swords would be beaten to ploughshares 
Sadako, you saw a world free 
Where each could sit safely on Sowside 
In peace 'neath her own apple tree 

Yet still it's not safe here on Sowside 
Where crumbly old railroads decay 
While bearing the work of the warriors 
That oozes up Sellafield way 
And convoys that prowl down the M6 
Toward Aldermaston's dark gate 
Risk giving our children leukemia 
As Sowside irradiates 

Sadako, it's not safe on Sowside
It's right in the range of the fire 
When Sellafield's hit by the lepers 
Or launchers on Tridents misfire 
They say that this arsenal sailing 
Is helping to keep Sowside's peace 
And yet it's all aimed at Sadakos 
Who aim back their missiles at me 

Sadako, there are laws to guard us 
World justice rejects genocide 
Yet everywhere round us the plotters 
Cast world-agreed laws on one side 
All justice flies out from the window 
In mad uncontrollable war 
Where numberless cranes and Sadakos 
Are killed against every known law 

Chorus: 
But cranes are in flight over Sowside 
To warn of the hawks high above 
And call us to open our dovecotes 
And turn the skies white with our doves 

We penned words to Whitehall for justice 
'Don't steal all our wealth from the poor' 
They said human rights were just paper 
They had to buy missiles for war 
We wrote to our Westminster sages 
The ones who make most of our laws 
But most of them said they thought peace comes 
From threatening nuclear war 

Sadako, we struggled for justice 
By helping the Strathclyde police 
To save all the poor and unhealthy 
And Gaia from breach of the peace 
We sat down in roadways at Faslane 
To block all the routes into war 
Upholding the spirit and letter 
Of humanitarian law 

We sang in the road in our peace rings 
But then came our friends the police 
Arrested us right there and charged us 
'Disorderly, breach of the peace' 
The officers had the law muddled 
Imagining we were the hawks 
And so the true culprits flew cageless 
And we were now viewed like Guy Fawkes 

Chorus: 
But cranes are in flight over Sowside 
To warn of the hawks high above 
And call us to open our dovecotes 
And turn the skies white with our doves 

I stayed from my trial, Sadako 
I'd only be wasting their time 
We'd simply been trying to help them 
To stop the world's bloodiest crime 
But then on my front door a hand knocked 
Two men from the Sowside police 
Were waiting out there to arrest me 
For walking the road to world peace 

The ceilings in police cells on Sowside 
Have writing that stares at the floor 
To tell you they'll pay if you help them 
In catching the breakers of law 
I told them about all the warriors 
Who threaten the peace on Sowside 
With trains and with lorries and missiles 
Preparing for last genocide 

I told them of those in the White House 
I told of the plans in Whitehall 
I shopped all the profits at Barrow 
And Rolls Royce and Lockheed and all 
I told about academe's traitors 
Who'd sold out their physics as well
And yet the law mocked me, Sadako 
And kept me cooped up in my cell 

Chorus: 
But cranes are in flight over Sowside 
To warn of the hawks high above 
And call us to open our dovecotes 
And turn the skies white with our doves 

Two officers took me to Scotland 
And caged me once more in a cell 
The next day the J. P. was waiting 
To hear what it was I would tell 
I said that I just wasn't guilty 
He told me to come back again 
And so after three months I pleaded 
By reading these words from my pen 

I said once again 'I'm not guilty 
I sat down to uphold the law' 
He told me 'Your breath is just wasted 
That's not what this court here is for 
You sat in disorderly circles 
Your songs breached the peace of this land 
Examples we must make for justice 
Or crime will get right out of hand' 

Sadako, he asked me for money 
And gave me advice just for free 
'You are the danger to Scotland 
The justice of peace that is me' 
I said 'Then I must find you guilty 
You're clearly in league with police 
With governments and corporations 
To breach the world's laws made for peace' 

Chorus: 
But cranes are in flight over Sowside 
To warn of the hawks high above 
And call us to open our dovecotes 
And turn the skies white with our doves 

Like Alison Crane I'm a Quaker 
Each seeking to know higher law 
And seeking to live in that power 
Which has no occasion for war 
And everyone there in that courtroom 
Had deeply-held principles too 
And everyone longed to see justice
And all wanted peace just like you 

And then I saw cranes in that court room 
Sadako, you touched every heart 
Police, clerk and J. P. and lawyers 
All struggled to step from their parts 
Your spirit was in us, Sadako 
For each and all of us knew 
My innocence came from a future 
Where no child would suffer like you 

Sadako you spoke origami 
'Leukaemia is only for me 
Never again Hiroshima 
My one thousand cranes are for peace' 
So Trident we'll beat into ploughshares 
Sadako, we'll set the world free 
And each shall sit freely on Sowside 
In peace 'neath her own apple tree 

Chorus: 
But cranes are in flight over Sowside 
To warn of the hawks high above 
And call us to open our dovecotes 
And turn the skies white with our doves 

               Roger Oldfield

I felt this rather long and well written poem could have stood alone in court without a preliminary statement to the magistrate.
The preface spoiled it for me and the argument is cleverly stated in the various stanzas. I groaned when I first saw its length and groaned much more when it finished.
It's quite possible the magistrates would agree with its contents but were forced to apply the law in accordance with the advice the clerk of the court gave them.
I share a very different outlook to Mr Oldfied on matters of this kind but that does not make me like this work any less.
It's a very readable and poignant work.

I thought the sentiments were valid and very well put in the main, but I agree with the previous critic - it needs shortening to make it punchier. Lots of good stuff in there though, many will agree with you and grieve for the way the world is going today.

The Roger Oldfield Page

Cranes over the Sow

by Roger Oldfield