The Poetry Corner

Dreams transcend space and time. 

In our dreams, we leave the body and explore the mind. 

We go where the imagination takes us.

This is the poetry corner. 

Phone Call To God

by: Fiji, 12 yrs old

Hello God, I called tonight to talk a while.

I need a friend once again who’ll listen to my trials.

You see, I can’t seem to make it through one day on my own.

I need your love to guide me so I’ll never feel alone. 

I want to ask you please to keep my family safe and sound. 

Come in and fill their lives for whatever fate they’re bound. 

Give me faith dear God to face each hour throughout the day.

And not to worry over things I can’t change anyway.

I thank you God for always taking my calls.

I thank you for giving me advice and catching me when I fall.

Your number, God, is the only one that answers every time.
I never get a busy signal and never had to pay a dime.

So thanks God again for easing my sorrow.

Good night, I love you, too. And I'll talk to you tomorrow :-)

***
I know. Twelve years old and she could write like that. I was impressed. It was amazing. She said she wrote this poem while watching the sunset out her window after dinner one evening. She pictured her father's face and her mother's tears and it made a lump in her heart. With every line, there was stillness and then with every breath of God's name, there was a soft crash against the rocks from the ocean. It was as if she was speaking to the ocean and the ocean responded with subtle joy.
***

***

A young man in his late 20's, serving a 20 to life sentence in a Southwestern prison, wrote this poem for me to take back and share with my readers. I remember how his face and mannerisms expressed his pain. He was deeply hurt, incredibly disturbed, but quite articulate and passionate about his faith. We talked briefly about his rhymes. He was going to be a rapper before he got locked up. He said his raps spoke his true language: love. This was the last rhyme he wrote before he committed suicide in his cell.

***

I'm Free

by: E.M.D., 5/24/03

The memories I paint ain't picture perfect.
I'm holding on but it's not enough to even scratch the surface.

The mind is troubled but I'm seeing double in my spirit.
Can't wake the evil deep inside because I fear it.

It's the penitentiary my soul is screaming freedom.
They give me books to read for free but I don't need them.

I'd rather lie awake at night and bang my head through the wall.
Wishing hoping praying that anybody would call.

I'm writing letters for the pleasure of watching the pen.
Release the pressure of the fact that I'm dying in sin.

Will I ever see my mama 'nem laughin' again?
Will I ever be the shoulder for the pain of my friends?

And will I ever feel the love of a woman again?
Or will I die leaving behind this depression I'm in.…

It ain't worth it asking questions, I already know.
The only way to truly be free is dying on the row.

I'm tired of people telling me that it's all gon' change….
I know this but until then I'm drowning in rain.

Everyday I'm looking for a way to hide from the shame.
I'm getting older and I'm running out of people to blame.

No one left to talk to so I cry to Jesus.
Please help me out this hole of hell I'm digging it deeper.

Every time I try to pay you back I'm making it worse.
Don't need a reason-I understand that you loved me first.

The voice is getting louder the closer I get.
To the hour I'm relieved from the hate and regret.

Arms and legs shackled-plate strapped to my head.
Thought I would die crying but I'm smiling instead.

I was burdened by my destiny and laws of the state.
But now I'm breathing with a reason as I pass through the gates.

Rest in Paradise, E.M.D. Here's your song:

***

The next piece is not a poem. It is an excerpt from a conversation I had with a bartender in Indiana. We talked over dinner and drinks at MacNiven's Restaurant and Bar. I will never forget him because he was the funniest looking little man with a crooked smile, a wise mind and a heck of an eye for politics. We were talking about how some people wanted to take "one nation under god" out of the Pledge. I asked him what his thoughts were on the matter and I could not agree more.
***

     "As a citizen and a Christian I am extremely concerned with the views our political leaders have regarding the bible’s definition of government. It is imperative that today’s heads of government realize that every move they make must be in accordance to the will of the Highest Law. Our country was founded on these laws but unfortunately fell away from their true meaning and creed of "one nation under God." According to the Bible, those of leadership positions or heads of government must recognize the original position of its council and departments. They are there to serve, honor, protect, and provide for the nation in which they govern. It is not the intent of the governmental head to provoke war, ignore famine and poverty and operate a country without the guidance of Divine Law. This country could be easily cured of ninety percent of its problems simply by turning to the Bible for answers. It is the duty of the political leaders to obey God's will in ruling and acting as head of counsel but if the political leaders refuse to acknowledge, learn, read, study and fully accept and enforce the teachings and commandments of the Divine Law, the head and body of government and society will surely fail in its efforts to survive and will eventually die completely. Our society will fall ruin to operation and ruling without God's Law as the center focus and purpose of structure and the world in whole will continue to create more and more ways to destroy itself until one day it's too late. This is why I feel that our political leaders should return to the origin of governmental structure and find out what it truly means to be a leader of nations. The answer to all of their problems is in the top drawer of every hotel in America."

 Top drawer of every hotel in America, eh? That phrase sounded familiar. Oh yes. It was mine.

***
Being that I'm left-handed, yes a southpaw, I couldn't help but laugh a little on this next poem. But it was a very serious poem and held sentiment for the author, (who just happened to be right-handed.)
***

Left- Handed Curse

I can see the chewed brass knob,
Mangled from something that clawed
To get down there.
My fingers reach to open the door,
Shaking hands with it.
I would pray that the beasts behind it might go away.
I used to make my mom sit at the top of the stairs
And talk to me, while I crept down to get a load of hot laundry
Or check the wood stove.
I knew that if I heard her voice, I was still alive.
Once I heard the charred wood settle into itself
And the painful groan of the dryer,
I knew something was down there,
Remembered where I was, bolted up the stairs
Three at a time, making sure the hands couldn't get me.
Two stairs from the top, I took a quick glance behind me,
Expected to see a foaming beast, inches from my ankles.
But instead there was nothing but a cascade of brown carpet

And ahead of me stood Mom, hands on hips,
Shaking her head, not understanding my fear.
I had escaped once again from my imagination's grip.

***

This next poem was written by a woman near and dear to my heart. She was a middle school teacher from Wisconsin. Her words were as strong as her love and it showed. Let me share one of the poems she shared with me. I was moved by her conviction. There is a place for you in peace.

***

Rapture, (A.E.M. 83199)
He will come
The thief in the night
The Son of Man
Clothed in power and glory
Hair of lamb's wool
White and blameless
They will be gone,
The stoned and the mocked
The jailed, abandoned who walked
To become fishers of men
From the lips of which flowed honey
Saved from God's wrath
And you whisper
Wiping it from the mind
Will He come for you
Lost and dancing with the world?
Narrow is the Path
Wide is the gate to death
Open are the arms of Perfection
Nailed to a cross
Bleeding and crushed
God's anger poured out
On His only Son
Broken for you.

***

Of course I have to wonder at times if my own notes are worthy of poetic justice, but I know it is not the poetry in motion that sets the mood for the content, it is the message. So here is a little blurb of my own that I shared with the National Science Foundation at a seminar in 2004.

***

"Since the dawn of man and technology the question has been asked, is science and religion the same or different? Experts in both fields offer many opinions and theories, but have never truly reached an agreement on an explanation of the relationship between the two. Taking a fresh approach to the debate over science vs. religion requires removing oneself from either bias. Let us take a moment to consider this. If indeed religion is simply a study of beliefs, it in fact, really has nothing to do with one's faith in a particular deity."

"In all actuality, religion has very little to do with God or the Bible or any other doctrine for that matter. Religion is simply something one does in a repeated, habitual manner. We associate faith with religion because of historical connotations. Faith is used in Scripture so often to support and describe belief in a Divine Deity, that we naturally associate one with the other. When in reality, there is no physical evidence, only a hypothesis or idea that the end result will eventually come to pass. Doctrines of all have considered a basis of faith because the deity in which they truly seek and the works thereof are the end result-yet to come."

"Now science, in simpler form, is the study of what is and the possibility of what could be. It is formed around the idea of what already exists or what could exist and again, a hypothesis is drawn, a conclusion is devised and studies are founded on evidential results. At is at that moment, the two become one. Science and faith rely on the same ingredients in order to exist. Science and faith have the same purpose and goal: the repetitious study of one or more ideas, driven by the need to reach undeniable end results. Therefore, science is merely the explanation of faith. They are one in the
same. The science of faith is a religion and the faith of science is a practice of humanity."

So. Must science leave room for faith? Of course. One cannot exist without the other."

Revelation: a poem

020491

The force of Ra has been released containing the realms of energy the potion of humanity
The core of mother Earth expectorating the souls of hundreds of years
The enemy of M'Kaddesh awakens thrusting through the veins of nature
Hellacious blazes of rolling flame appear
Burning the spirits that range the sky
Aftermath gives birth to the new world
The light bearer comes forth
Beneath her feet is blood stained soil
The third eye wept tears of glistened lustrium
Dead seas bathed in blood. Desolate lands settled in infested pits
The sundial shadows the end of time
The eternal quest is fulfilled disturbing the restlessness
It has been done
Shalom

-DeMaster Thomas