Read Ben Okri’s Poem on the War in Ukraine, Calling for Hope and Resilience

May 09, 2022

The Booker Prize-winning Nigerian author Ben Okri lends a voice to the ongoing conflict on the Ukrainian border.

In a new poem published in The Guardian and titled “To Katya, Aged 7, in a Bomb Shelter in Kyiv,” Okri captures the horrors of the ongoing war through the eyes of the fictional titular character Katya. Her homeland descends into chaos as bombs ravage buildings and families are forced to separate and seek safety elsewhere. The poem, however, ends on a hopeful note as it calls on readers to demonstrate resilience and hold steadfast to a positive future.

Read an excerpt of the poem below. We hope it opens, for you, a space of reflection as you continue to process the on-going tragedy in Ukraine.

“All around you missiles
Are falling. Churches
You once knew won’t
Be there any more.
The streets you walked
Will be changed by
Blood and shelling
And bombs. It seems
The world’s gone mad.
As the Earth shakes,
Not because of the rage
Of the gods, but that
One man wants to
Win back a lost empire,
You will think that
Your world is being
Shattered for ever. It is.
But out of the destruction,
Out of all this thunder,
Something new will
Come. Whatever happens
Your land will know
The courage of its soul,
Its people; and history
Will be rewritten not
With the force of an autocrat
But by the steadfast hope
And desire to be true
To the beauty of your earth
And all you have
Suffered. Katya in your
Bomb shelter, we’re with you.
We’re there in the shadows
We’re there in the silence
Between the explosions …”

Those who destroy your land
Destroy themselves.
Always remember what
Your land fights for,
The right to its future,
Without any force from
Outside. Katya, we are
Done with people forcing
Us into their own dream.
We are done with being
Told who we can or can’t
Be. A time comes when
You stand and say
My future’s mine to dream
My land is mine to till
My life is mine to imagine
You will not break my truth
You will not distort my
Dream. You will not
Destroy my future, who
Ever you are. You may
Pulverise our churches,
Our roads, theatres, and our
Hospitals, with hundreds
Hiding in them, but you’ll
Never touch the
Fountain of our dreams,
Or the deep world
From which we will create
Every day a radiant
Land. From this bomb
Shelter we’ll dream anew.
Your shelling is our resurrection
Your missiles are missives
Of our regeneration.
All that you ruin
Are all those things
Which must go so
That we will for ever
Be free to be what we
Truly are. For even
If you win, the victory
Is ours. For you’ve
Tempered our souls
And revealed to us our
True selves which we
Might never have
Found without your
Wish to crush us.