ABANDONING WAR FOR PEACE: A SCRIPTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Remember and be encouraged by the blessed scriptures:
“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule…your hearts.
For as members of one body, you are called to live in peace…”
Likewise, in thanksgiving prayer, also be forever inspired
In knowing “God blesses those who…[labor]...for peace,
For they will be called the…[blessed]...children of God.”
I’ve kept putting you last,
never my intention.
Thought we could always circle back.
Another rescue, another distraction—
until my own foe rose up to attack.
He only wanted peace,
and I was the one holding it back.
Didn’t notice the cracks spreading
until the whole began to sway.
Buried so deep the surface never showed
until it finally gave way.
In the rubble I saw the truth:
the foe had won.
But somehow… so had I.
The enemy was me—
buried beneath every “I’ll be back soon,”
honest at first,
until they turned into lies.
It took the fall to finally see:
I wasn’t fighting anyone else.
I was abandoning me.
Dylan got bitten
hard by fame
and though wounded
continues to tour
A thundering
majesty
in makeup and veils
jesters by the score
Divorced from
his wandering
a pilgrim of dreams
the past too great a cost
A caricature
of genius gone
eyes clouded over
—Camelot lost
(The New Room: June, 2023)
I
Practising something
Winning takes thinking
Like the world
Values curtailed, curled
II
Add anonymity
Online carefree community
Some will begin games
Not play; hope you go away
Courtesy questioned; charged with abandonment
Social contract corrected less fast (for content)
III
We play games
For variety, virtual community
Go everywhere, in His Peace, Shalom
Try always, to live your values, decorum
Yet, what shall one do? Use BLOCK!
ONLINE, we are unlikely to take stock
So play to see, as guest, good sport
Be Wise, but more, Be A Good Sport. The social - media editors overdo little problems ... I understand the tough balancing act. Just had these thoughts 1-2 years ago, when I played almost daily (CandyCrush & online chess).
She wears her pain like a stole of pure glass
The glinting fabric distracting from
Penetrating shards snarling beneath it.
She struts with agonizing precision
Portraying an ease she never feels
A carelessness born of sensing too much.
As the torment crescendos, fevered pitch
Assaulted from a new direction:
“Friends” who know this will pass, another come.
Sparkling eyes and a painted-on smile
Tears she can’t shed lest her public mask
Melt like wax left in the attic too long.
Normally she peals off the stole at night
Letting the loss ooze from the holes left,
Sobbing, desperate for sleep that can’t come.
Tonight she hugs it tight, ripping her flesh
She can almost see her broken heart
Merging with the red water in the tub.
Pain flies softly away on her last breath.
June 25, 2018
Abandoning yesterday,
time morphs into tomorrow.
And steps over dying dreams,
drowning in tears of sorrow.
When love abandons the scene,
fantasies morph into lust.
For untethered from my heart,
trust; has eroded to rust.
Paradise turns to desert
when the wind whispers your name.
For I'm reminded you left,
and now, nothing is the same.
Tattered, dried-out memories
tend to crumple at my touch.
And blow away with the wind,
not counting for very much.
The sun continues to shine,
and the sky's still just as blue.
But my reason for living
disappeared when I lost you.
On the banks of your life
Doubt fixing you offshore
A gripping beast never quits feeding
On dreams hungry for more
To ask yourself questions
Are they answers you know
Always precipitously trying to learn
You justify with the flow
Will you see your opening
Pushing your given chance
Do the beasts raptly glower into you
Or escape a second glance
Whenever you travel alone
How will you pull through
Who has mind to deftly prognosticate
Just what a beast will do
Seeing beyond your corner
Most importantly learning
You discover the ideas of everything
What above life may bring
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