Scotland News

Build Back Better: A poem by Lois Cameron

Tags: art, poem, poetry, Scotland
Published on May 22, 2020

Lois Cameron was one of over 200 people who attended a recent joint event organised by the RSA and WEAll, where Katherine Trebeck and Jamie Cooke were in conversation about what it will take to Build Back Better and create wellbeing economies. You can watch their discussion here.

Lois was so inspired by what she heard that she was moved to write this beautiful poem:

Build Back Better  

 

Our nation’s success is measured in GDP

Care, kindness, love do they appear?

Why don’t we count things important to me?

 

Time to shop local and be neighbourly

To slow down, connect , bring others cheer

Our nation’s success is measured in GDP

 

Making money is not all it’s cracked up to be

People feel redundant as they lose their career

Why don’t we count things important to me?

 

Can you see the butterflies, hear the bees?

Listen to clean water tumble over the weir

Our nation’s success is measured in GDP

 

The change will be hard for all to agree

But to ‘build back better’ we need to be clear

Why don’t we count things important to me?

 

Changing what matters is going to be key

In this woman lead, make sure you hear

Our nation’s success is measured in GDP

Why don’t we count things important to me?

 

May 2020     Lois Cameron

Want to join
the discussion?
Let us know what
you would like
to write about!