11/4/2023
He slammed his heavy door, right in friendships’ face!
She cried heavy tears into a handkerchief of dainty, lilac lace.
The silver moon rose in the sky, she heard it whisper, with a cloudy sigh…..
“God did see that email, and your new, best friend is almost nigh.”
Serenity Prayer, by Reinhold Niebuhr
“God, grant me the serenity, to accept the things
I cannot change.
The courage to change the things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference!”
(at risk of life and limb) against scourge of
racial prejudice courtesy
of sharecropper grandparents
whose objection to racial segregation
based on an affront to the will of God,
whereby the young whip smart precocious lad,
(whose impact we now memorialize)
showed his true colorful promise
when a young student at
Liberal Crozer Theological Seminary
in Chester, Pennsylvania
where the yet uncrowned
eminent king came under the influence
of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr,
a classmate of his father's
at Morehouse College
who became a mentor by exposing
his protégée to liberal views of theology
planting the seeds of ardent activism
that gave rise to
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC),
an initial platform
allowing, enabling and providing acclaim
hoisted up by petard
invariably only heightened
(his) posthumous status
as thee most articulate orator
spelling binding the listeners
with his metaphors about his emphatic march
to a promised land where all
men/women could be brothers/sisters
and no person will be judged
by the color of his/her skin
raising morale of many dirt poor
ebony masses to feel a glimmer of hope.
SERENITY RESPONSE
The winds of autumn blow
Creating change
The crux of the matter
Do I bend or do I break?
Willow knows the truth
She may weep besides waters deep
But she drinks in courage to face the future
And bends when winds do blow
And in her serenity - she survives
'She accepts the things she cannot change'
© Brenda V Northeast 24th Jan. 2011
For Nette Onclaud’s- Serenity response
The Serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference Amen
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