‘Love is all you need’ was what they sang, but why isn’t it enough?
How can it be all we need, when our life gets hard and tough?
How will love help the married couple when all is crashing to an end?
Will love stand up in court when this relationship cannot mend?
Will love give them money to ease their worrisome debt?
Or has love forsaken them and withdrawn its safety net?
Speak gently to the mother whose heart is racked with pain
After her child has been murdered and his body left slain.
What can love do to ease her grief and renew her faith and trust?
How can love bring peace to her when her life is so unjust?
When homes are lost and lives destroyed just how does love conquer all?
What do we expect love can possibly do when our backs are to the wall?
Listen to the child who is starving and crying out in fear.
Then place love upon his empty plate to wipe away his tears.
Explain to him how love will stop this cruel and heartless time,
And how, with love, he won’t be hungry and his life will be just fine.
Tell the homeless in our cities roaming aimlessly about,
Where love will lead them to when their lives are down and out.
If love was all they needed on a cold night for a rug,
How did they end up living for their bottle or their drug?
When we have absolutely nothing left and our plight is filled with dread,
Why won’t love rescue us and fight for us instead?
Whisper to the wife whose husband has beaten her for years
That love will stand between his fists and take the blows she fears.
And that all she really needs to do is trust that love knows best
And it will mend her face and heart as easily as the rest.
Tell the soldier who lies dying that love is there for him
Will he believe you on the battlefield where his mates have lost their limbs?
He will still die his savage death, alone and with no friend
and in his eyes the fear of war and unanswered prayers, his end.
If only love would save us from the tears that sweep our cheeks
And light the way before us lost souls instead of leaving us so weak?
Please remind the mother who is struggling to live both day and night
To protect and feed her kids that love will bring the end in sight.
She can’t possibly believe you in this her time of need
When no escape from this dark helplessness can she understand or heed.
Place your arms around the father who has battled hard in court
Tell him love will ease his grief and he should not feel so distraught.
That Love stood by and watched as custody was mercilessly ripped away.
I am sure he’ll look hard into your eyes with disbelief at all you say.
This love they sing of isn’t strong enough to hold up me and you.
Let alone perform the miracles that we now need love to do.
Find the child whose limbs were just blown off by a mine out in the field
And to him whisper words of love as from his chest the burnt flesh peels.
Look into his wide and ravaged eyes as they completely fill with tears
Listen to his screams and tell him love will stop this pain he fears.
Hiding from her mirror; no longer beautiful today.
Love did not remove those scars no matter how hard she prayed.
For love did not reach out and help her when he slashed her skin so deep.
And now she lives a nightmare with this memory to keep.
And, hold the tiny baby whose fragile life does not look fine
Tell her that her mother’s dead and that she’s next in line.
Stand there with your love and see if it makes the outcome new.
And watch as with all that modern science there is nothing they can do.
How can love be all we need when our world is one big mess
And humanity has not yet learnt to ‘live as one’ I guess?
What disaster must befall us before we can all concede
That if we do not do something greater than us, there will be no love, indeed.
References made to:
“All You Need Is Love” – Lennon / McCartney (in opening line)
The Blue Album, The Beatles 1967 – 1970.
“Imagine” – John Lennon (in last stanza). Imagine 1971.
