The Truth Will Set Us Free If We Let It

Truth is truth

No matter how we spin

The lies and the deceit

Do not always win.

Character prevails

Let’s see it more and more

I hope we find more of it

That’s what most of us implore.

Women tell the truth

They live within their skin

To doubt their stories

Is too deep a sin.

People in power

White men in the crowd

No longer get by with crimes

And that makes me proud.

Character matters

Though some would disagree

Those who put politics above it

Will surely come to see.

Shall we continue the journey

And move toward things that matter

Before we totally ruin ourselves

Lest more lives we would shatter.

There is hope in the land

I feel it in my soul

Maybe we’ve turned the corner

The truth must somehow be told. 

Lord, I'm Thankful for a Thing or Two, Updated

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Wife and my kids and my dog are some

Just need to keep thankin’ till my days are done.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Friends down here and friends over there

Without those friends, I’d be nowhere.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Wrong in the world keep me up all night

Lookin’ for change to make it all right.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

High ideals buried deep in the heart

All come from You right from the start.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Right to vote and to take a stand

Trying to get it right as much as I can.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Stories of old that make us cry

Hope for the future lest we die.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Thanksgiving Day is drawin’ near

Hope for justice maybe this year.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Food on the table, hands will cling

Thanks to you we might even sing.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

For vision that inspires, for hope within

For faith in humanity again and again.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Coffee in the morning, and time with you

Reading through the Book and other things, too.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Waking each day with my wife, my bride

Feeling inspired with her by my side.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Friends out east friends out west

Workin’ real hard and get no rest.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Justice is hard and it comes real slow

Keep on workin’ with little to show.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord I’m thankful for a thing or two

Justice is worth it, those sleepless nights

Injustice is wrong, keep the right in sight.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Grandsons five, younger and now older

Granddaughter makes six, here on my shoulder

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

A life now lived with minimal regrets

Looking to the future as sun soon sets.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

Things to read and words to write

Justice to stir to continue the fight.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two

People who are called to walk beside

Feeling disregard, trying to stem the tide.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

Lord, I’m hopin’ for a thing or two.

Yes, I’m hopin’ for a thing or two.

Yes, I’m thankful for a thing or two.

I Am Guilty

I have borrowed a phrase from Thomas Merton's book and shaped it into these words. The context of this poem is that of the days between Jesus' entry into the city and the resurrection. I wonder how many were bystanders during that fateful week? I also wonder how we are impacted when we stand on the sidelines while horrific things are happening in front of us whether those are disenfranchised people here in our country, children in another country, or back in the days of Jim Crow South. There could be many applications.

I am a guilty bystander
            Inching along on the fringes
            Hoping not to be seen or
            Pulled into the fray.

I am a guilty bystander

            As he rides up the narrow street
            On top of a donkey as we yell and
            Holler as if a king has come to town

I am a guilty bystander

            As he teaches in the Temple area
            People listening and arguing
            As he comes and goes into the night.

 I am a guilty bystander

            Pain I do not want to feel
            And at a distance I can
            Intellectualize and depersonalize.

I am a guilty bystander

            Feeling the crowd nudge against me
            Sensing our detachment and voyeurism
            While someone is suffering.

I am a guilty bystander

            My hands are clean of fault
            No stain upon my detached heart
            Watching the spectacle from afar.

I am a guilty bystander

            And watching I will stay
            While blood flows down and
            Pools on the hillside or into the street.

Yes, I am a guilty bystander
            On the roads of Jerusalem
            In the woods during that lynching
            While those children died.

I am a guilty bystander
            And someday sooner or later
            I’ll see the error of my way
            And the truth will crash in on me.

And then what?

 

Woe Unto Us: A Lament

Children magical and joyful
Reflections of their parents’ deepest desires
Their own little images reflecting
The glory of the maker of heaven and earth.

Across the globe, children created in the images of their parents

And the Lord of heaven and earth
Objects of war and victims of greed and
Broken humanity and its terror toward one another.

Magic in the garden one day and

Images of gasps for breath the next.
Whose children are they and to whom do they belong
If not to their parents and their country and the world
Then to whom?

In this world you’ll have trouble but

Be encouraged for I have overcome the world
Are the words of the risen Lord.
The world is troubled and we are troubled
And our troubles boil over and trouble others who are troubled.

So we drop another bomb on the ones responsible

But they knew it was coming.
The world is all inflamed even more so than before.
Who is to blame and who is to be the defender of the
Fatherless and the children and the widows.

Children. Dead children. Pictures horrify and offend.

Casualties of war. Leaders poisoning their own.
Children left on the shores of our country unable
To cross over into peace and opportunity.
Who cares for those kids and who will care for the deceased and who
Will care for their parents.

And when will wars end and who will end them

And how many soldiers will have to die and how
Many families will suffer losses unspeakable.
 
When will bombs create peace.
When will explosions bring about harmony.
When will war stop war.
When will death stop death.

The irony is unspeakable.

The contradictions have no words.
The joys for those parents and grandparents,
And the unspeakable grief for those.

Where is the justice and righteousness its kin?

Where is anguish of those children and our own?
Those children matter so let’s start a war.
These children matter, and who will fight for them?

I am a father. I am a grandfather.

I have a family. My sons have families.
Someday my sons’ children will have families.
What of them. Do their lives matter.
Whose lives matter and whose lives don’t.
Who gets to decide.

Who will send the next bomb?

Who will unleash the next gas bomb.
Whose children and grandchildren will suffocate.
Whose children and grandchildren will thrive.
Who gets to decide?

Woe unto us who care not for the children.

Courage, Its Face, Its Sounds

What does it look like
        How does it sound;
Its smell is like what,
        It comes when and how?

To speak a word of truth

        To utter kindness or generosity;
To shout a word into the wind of the times
        To whisper against the roar of complacency.

To offer resistance when the clamor
        Is for the same well worn path;
To listen to the quiet cries of the shattered
        Above the shouts of the angry mob.

 To write words that will be

        Misconstrued or misunderstood;
To seek when you cannot find
        And to find when you do not seek.

To pray words when you do not see

        The face of God;
To lay open all of yourself for no one to hear
        And to believe maybe, just maybe.

To offer a hand to the one who has lost the way

        Or to the one blinded by the hatred or hurt of the past;
To touch those deemed infectious by the wise of the day
        To guard the perimeter in bitter cold of winter in a war you did not start.

To stand when all sit,

To sit when all stand;
To pray when all chatter,
To kneel and pray when all others sing.

Courage what does it look like,

        Courage, how does it sound;
The smell of courage is like what,
        Courage comes when and how?

Who Shall We Follow

To whom shall we give our loyalty
                         to whom shall we speak respectful words
                         and to whom shall we promise to honor and respect

Who Oh Lord other than you

             You Oh Lord command our attention
                         You call us to look to the heavens
                          You prompt us to look beyond ourselves

We are nothing but who we are
             we are not more than what we are supposed to be
             humans we are humans we will be
                          and when we die we will die as humans

 While humaning upon the earth

             we yearn for things for ideals
             for principles for righteousness
                          for fairness equity legitimacy to all of Your people

We in our humaning at times want
             another human like us to lead us
             we know that in closeness there can be trust
                          we assume that some like us and different from us can lead us

For some of us in our humaning
             we want the leader to speak like us think like us live like us
             lead how we would live in our darkest places
                           and other such ideas of unspeakable nonsense

For some of the rest of us in our humaning

             we want a leader who inspires provokes encourages
             all manner of good like kindness generosity service
                            and other such ideas of speakable decency

We yearn for one who will lead
             since we cannot to go into arenas
             to which we are not invited for him or her
                             to represent truth about us speak for us not to speak like us

In our better selves as we human upon this earth
             we may imagine ourselves humaning like him
             we are caught up in our shame dehumanizing other humans we
             laugh or cry or rain shame upon us
                            we have done or thought the same

At other times we cringe knowing

             he demeans others who are human like us
            would prompt rage and anger were
                             he or anyone else to treat us with similar words phrase tones sentences

 In our better selves as humans

             as we human upon this earth
            we image ourselves humaning like him and
                            we rise and say glory hallelujah thank you

 That which is the best of our internal selves

             seen upon the grandest of stages
             a reflection of our ideals as we yearn to be and
             in amazement we stand as his and hers and their
                             humaning rise above the noise the din the insanity of a world gone mad

 Which human do I follow most instinctively

            which human do I most aspire to look sound
             behave like which human prompts internal conflicts
             as he speaks arouses behaves conducts the affairs on behalf
                             of those of us who cannot be there but can be only here

I reflect upon the people of Israel

            wanted a king God gave with a warning careful what you ask
             the kings did their kinging badly or well
                            David inspired with his devotion dancing writing singing playing

 I reflect upon the people of Israel

             got more than they asked for Solomon inspired
             with his wisdom and knowledge and skills of building leading
                            Ahab and Ahaziah inspired fear hide shrink mind our own business

 Inspire us again O Lord

             allow us to watch and sing and dance
             before you with joy mercy righteousness
                             leave behind our days of fear anger worry dread embarrassment

Bring again our truer better righteous selves as a people country

             to inspire prompt better higher nobler things characteristics
             treatment of people like different same not so same
                             people and planet we call home for others to call home