Thank you for publishing Ben Okri’s new poem, Gaza (24 May). It was an expression in poetry of what has been to me an inexpressible despair for humankind: “No / Civilisation can survive on the murder / Of a people … / We are measured by what we tolerate, / The agony we ignore, keep quiet about, / For our peace of mind”. Elsewhere in the Guardian on the same day, we were enjoined by Jonathan Freedland to vote down the Tories to punish them, but retribution in Gaza has shown us that while punishment may bring satisfaction to the avenger, it does not bring healing. I shall vote for a party that unequivocally endorses the judgment of the international court of justice – that will truly represent me. If none there be, so be it, I am disenfranchised. Ruth Baker Matfield, Kent