I
She was a prophetess
Dealing with vision, words
Then came political correctness
Some tongues are incarcerated
II
Have you paid (absurd)
For your every word
Some want you "wrong"
Others say, "Go along"
III
Dr. King used diction
Minus hate, violent action
So did Diedrich Bonhoeffer
What would you offer?
Categories:
bonhoeffer, africa, america, freedom, humanity,
Form: Rhyme
In sad times, I recall King’s harassment
Stabbed at a book-signing in NYC
(Did they tell us King refused prosecution?)
Now, let us not forget Bonhoeffer
Young Dietrich in Nazi Germany, forewent
His fiancee’s company to work underground
Even returned from USA only to be nabbed …
Executed by Hitler days before Allied victory!
In the vast riches of my Being
There is a sacred mountain range
In one broad swath of Space
Is the most verdant pine forest
Interspersed with cedars and the occasional oak
Yet the unity, the Consciousness, the Life
Seems eternal, peaceful, safe, even NOW
As I breathe deeply, the tears roll down my face
In one whisper all the swaying branches speak:
Don’t cut me, don’t burn me, for YOUR sake
The corner of sky is cerulean blue
Then a wispy cloud – thought: I must write – passers by
I do not attend. I hover between Being and Form
In my saddest times, I have more means
To defend myself than trees and forests
Than the humble turtle, rumbunctious rhino,
Elegant elephant, or Palestine Molerat
... they may go the way of passenger pigeon and dodo
While I choose perspective over doldrums
Categories:
bonhoeffer, animal, appreciation, art, black
Form: Rhyme
Jesus Christ incarnate became a man
lived on this earth thirty and three years
showed to all who and what is God
faced man's opposition and all his smears
This Jesus the God-man took on our flesh
faced temptations just like us but overcame
showed life in all it's fullness by far
in that as well taking all our blame
Going to the cross as our substitute
paid for all our sins on His body on the tree
this was salvations price He paid to His father
so that His ransomed could go free
The great interchange Jesus came to do
taking our righteousness this for His very own
placing His pure garments upon us HIs elect
such merciful grace for our sins He did atone
Having Christ's spirit now within us
we can show Him to all who are lost
being of His character in words and deeds
showing to all redemptions great cost
Quote: “It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.” ? Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (1906- 1945) Christian Pastor.
Categories:
bonhoeffer, christian, inspiration, spiritual,
Form: Rhyme
BONHOEFFER
intense the man
who asks of God
“who am I?”
it echoes down the hall
through his lifetime
searching, pondering
he’s asked, “do you know God,”
the answer comes,
“i’m getting to know Him.”
i read the chain of words
they bind together
like d.n.a.
it’s not like taking a test.
God does not work
the same as man…
his chapel behind bars.
his hands press against the stone wall
on the other side a flood of fears.
a young man hears the recitation
of a poem —
from war it brings peace
as he stands against another wall
waiting to be shot.
again the echo, “who am i, Lord?”
as he tells lies to avoid the truth,
exchanging beauty for ashes
desiring to see colors,
hear birds sing.
he had a chance to escape
run off with his fiance
but his conscience before God
serves his fellow man
tears for his beloved
he’d like to kiss them away
and he tells her, “you fell in love
with the man i’ve become in here”
war is hell and peace is glued between pages
of a person’s mind,
first given to trembling
then to God.
hope comes after one closes their eyes
and some are cleared after many years.
11/26/2018
Categories:
bonhoeffer, christian,
Form: Free verse
Consider the rich man the wise man said
How soundly he sleeps upon his bed
And dreams
Of golden ponds
And silver streams
Of stocks and bonds
And cold hard cash
And other treasured trash
To stash
Within his pockets deep
While ten thousand hungry voices cry to sleep
Don't you do it
Don't you fall asleep in the rich man's tent
He has his reward but it's almost spent
Or would you dream
Of gentle oils
And soothing cream
Of rich man's spoils
Money groves
And treasure troves
To be stowed
within you cellars deep
While ten thousand hungry voices cry to sleep
Van Gogh did it
Bonhoeffer preached it for Heaven's sakes
Ten million years had been raised for stakes
So they traded in their down filled sleep
For tattered mattresses and soiled sheets
But then at last
Exchanged these earthen threads
For a more enduring cast
For Abraham's bosom beds
Where ten thousand hungry voices rest their heads
Categories:
bonhoeffer, inspirational, philosophy, sympathy, visionarycry,
Form: Rhyme
six million stones
a railroad car streaked red
a thousand astrodomes
swollen with dead children
the population of houston
dallas wiped out
ugly striped prison uniforms
signifying captures and escapes
martin luther as a bigot
bonhoeffer as a hero
dying days before the
liberation
faces from rwanda darfur
signaling the continuance
of a tradition of genocide
a danish fishing boat
hiding neighbors in a
fake bottom to escape
a wicked storming
the pictures of happy
proud loving families
bludgeoned in broken glass
a soft cloth golden star
like a slave branding
pulsating with hatred and
judgement harsher than
the ornate letter a for hester
1500000 butterflies
sewn drawn carved
remembering
the children who lost
their lives in the
Holocaust
"Butterflies don't live in here, here in the ghetto" Pavel Friedman, April, l942
Written after a visit to The Holocaust Museum of Houston
Categories:
bonhoeffer, death, family, history, political,
Form: Free verse