Inscriptions
Ben Okri in front of epitaph.
Image Copyright Darell Russell
In addition to the inscribed names of those awarded the George Cross or Victoria Cross on the pavilion dome. The words, Our future is greater than our past are engraved on one of the pillars of the Memorial Gates. These powerful words are the final line of the poem 'Turn on your light', composed by the Poet and Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri OBE.
Ben Okri OBE is a poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, aphorist, playwright, and film-script writer. His writing challenges perceptions of reality. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. Ben has also received numerous honorary doctorates for his contribution to Literature. In 2001 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Born in Nigeria he came to England as a child. He went to school in London and returned to Nigeria with his parents on the eve of the Nigerian Civil War. The war had a defining impact on his life. He finished his secondary school education and wanted to study physics. Deemed too young at the time for university, that summer he read his way through his father’s library and found his true vocation in literature and writing.
Ben Okri OBE is a poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, aphorist, playwright, and film-script writer. His writing challenges perceptions of reality. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. Ben has also received numerous honorary doctorates for his contribution to Literature. In 2001 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Born in Nigeria he came to England as a child. He went to school in London and returned to Nigeria with his parents on the eve of the Nigerian Civil War. The war had a defining impact on his life. He finished his secondary school education and wanted to study physics. Deemed too young at the time for university, that summer he read his way through his father’s library and found his true vocation in literature and writing.
Turn on your light
by Ben Okri
The new era is already here:
Here the new time begins anew.
The new era happens every day,
Every day is a new world,
A new calendar.
All great moments, all great eras,
Are just every moment
And every day writ large.
Thousands of years of loving, failing, killing,
Creating, surprising, oppressing,
And thinking ought now to start
To bear fruit, to deliver their rich harvest.
Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.
You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.
© Ben Okri, 1999.
From Ben Okri, Mental Fight, Phoenix House: London, 1999.
by Ben Okri
The new era is already here:
Here the new time begins anew.
The new era happens every day,
Every day is a new world,
A new calendar.
All great moments, all great eras,
Are just every moment
And every day writ large.
Thousands of years of loving, failing, killing,
Creating, surprising, oppressing,
And thinking ought now to start
To bear fruit, to deliver their rich harvest.
Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.
You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.
© Ben Okri, 1999.
From Ben Okri, Mental Fight, Phoenix House: London, 1999.