HERE is a song I wrote in solidarity with France...

They stood outside in silent pose
The rain came down on those unknown
Faces on the TV screens
Whose lives had once held only dreams
Dreams surrendered to the day
When nightmares chased them far away
Replacing them with fear and dread
A lasting numbness there instead
A day that started bright and clean
Where freedom was a certainty
And no one knew what was in store
Read the signs, took extra care
The writing it was on the wall
But who can live their lives at all
Shrouded in a cloak of doubt
Always scared to just speak out?
Afraid to voice their thoughts out loud
To fade away into the crowd
To be always seen but not be heard
Is not an option in this world
The pen is mightier than the sword
Always better to use words
Sentences with cutting edge
Than guns or knives with sharpened blade
So courage stands amongst us now
Unbeaten, though with furrowed brow
We lift ourselves and face once more
The fate that darkened every door
The fate that took us by surprise
With suddenness and thin disguise
Leaves us not cowed and crushed
As we stand together all of us.

Toni Bunnell, Beech Avenue, Holgate, York.