“There’s a System to Run a System” Reflective Poem
This #WorldPoetryDay we are delighted to share an insightful poem written by one of our PTS Qualification students in response to our Module 1 Challenge to express “What ‘System Change’ means to me”. Thank you to Sharron for sharing these moving thoughts with us.
There’s systems to run a system
To keep the cog wheels turning
And enlightened few yearning
For a different system, a better way
For system users to have a say
And take back control of their situation
To stop being labelled as a victim
The system has many labels and boxes
Very few options, more deficits and losses;
A loss of identity, a loss of trust
A loss of empowerment because “you must…”
I dream of a system that has no system
Where the cogs which are turning actually capture the yearning
Of those once trapped, and desperate to be free
Where the person before us is all we see
Where their voice is the only one we hear
And the path to their success is the one we cheer
Not the one we tick off on an assessment sheet
Or what we tell them they must do at the scheduled meet.
There’s systems to run systems
But no-one runs me
I am the change if I choose to be
I am the enlightened, free to create
Free to modify the systems I have grown to hate
I’ll be ridiculed and silenced and argued against
Story of my life, systems are not strength based
But my strength lies in showing compassion
Building relationships makes things happen.
If we understand what lies beneath
Those systems will slowly begin to creak
Power doesn’t lie in the hands of those systems
It comes from words and the impact they give us
So I will shout my words ever so loudly
And argue my case with confidence, and proudly
Because the systems that keep the cogs ever turning
Have less people applauding and more who are learning
That those systems don’t work and the system is broken
No truer words will ever be spoken.
The dream for me will be my reality
And systems within systems will be the fallicy.
There’s systems to run a system
But no one runs me
I’m enlightened, I’m awake
Time to be me.
by Sharron Harries