Nelson Mandela in his own words

A poem by Seamus Heaney from the book.

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play ot song
Can gully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once ina lifetime
THe longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On that far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

If there’s fire on the mountain
And lighting and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.

It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.