A moving yet hopeful service at Manchester Cathedral where around 500 people came together to pray, reflect, hear songs and poems, and be with family and friends of those killed through gang-related violence as the names of their loved ones were read out and flowers were laid in their memory.

Never knew how much I cared for you
Never knew I wouldn't share
Never knew I wouldn't look at you
Never knew you wouldn't be there

Never knew how much I talked to you
Never knew we wouldn't be a pair
Never knew I wouldn't smile at you
Never knew you wouldn't be there

Never knew how much I laughed with you
Never knew I wouldn't touch your hair
Never knew how much I'd miss you
Never knew you wouldn't be there

But I always knew how much I loved you
Always knew how much you shone
Because in my heart and in my soul
To me you are never gone

When will we, when will we see the dawn
It's like sunrise on another morn
I call, bang-bang-bang, another fall to the waste land,
How much can a mother stand.

In search of liberation, but we be raised on limitation,
hallucination chase us down cul-de-sacs of idle notions,
ingrained in our emotions like a strong witch's potion.
Its hard to convince of the beauty within,
or those who hate their skin,
because they been told from the begining
that they were raised on sinning ,
instead of singing the praise,like almighty rays,
illuminating dark days,
but times will change and change they must,
cos power over another is like lusting over dust,
and precious metals can never rust
and can never be as precious as us,
so whats the fuss,
it doesnt hurt to raise our consciousness.
instead on every record we swear and cuss
when will enough be enough,
puppet master have us lock in hand-cuffs
player blind mans buff,
talking about how the streets are ruff,
but we can elavate from this place,
bring the youth to the wisdom of an old face, make haste.

"Peace is not something you wish for, it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away." Robert Fulghum.

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