111. No more fighting now
Forgive me friend if I fight no more
My spirit’s tired and besides
Despairing of what my early anger had achieved
Lacking now the certainties
And impatience of my youth
The idealism too
The faraway hills no longer call
The home fire warms just fine
Familiar faces give respite
In a world that ever changes.
112. God doesn’t talk
God doesn’t talk, you know
It’s only you and I somehow
Who speak to him or her
Hoping for an answer.
But the words returning are
The words we framed ourselves
God never speaks in human tongue
Except through nature and our world.
He never changes, only us,
Who switch the channels on the radio
At times we listen well
At times the static dulls.
We find him at the core
There if we only look
Present in every man
In every plant and being.
Revelation is the act of finding
What is always there
It’s mind bending
To find him everywhere.
But absent when there’s hate
Or violent despair
Hope spells his middle name
His surname peace and care.
113. The nun
There is the quiet courage of the nun
Who makes her troth with god
Forsaking man and men
To be free in her virginity.
To walk the walk not just talk the talk
Within the convent grounds
To scale the doubts behind the walls
That challenge sanity and loyalty.
No one hears at dead of night
The silent cries of heart and soul
The wish for man and child
That every woman knows.
Kneeling on cold stone
At the altar of her giving
Can she picture now
A saviour more forgiving?
And yet and yet there is a joy
A compromise with nature
A satisfaction so profound
A sanctity that surrounds her.
114. The returned missionaries
Let me speak of the few
Though once they were many
Who forsook wife and family
To serve in a faraway territory.
Decades later to return
Health often ravaged and unwell
To an Ireland they hardly recognize
Which in turn forgets their hell.
Forgets the boyish faces
In photos black and white,
The broad smiles of the sixties
A time of trust and hope.
Yes of course, there were bad ‘uns
As in every walk of life
But these poor privates didn’t make the rules
They just served in self-sacrifice
Oh Ireland how fast you forgot them
Honoured by thousands abroad
Oh Ireland how slow to remember
How often they shared your load.
Bread eaten is quickly forgotten
By men with a message to pen
That sell papers and books
Forgetting or choosing to hide
That most coins have another side.
115. A bruised reed
A bruised reed he will not break
A smoldering wick he will not take
Kindness is his playing suit
His love and gentleness will take root.
In this stony heart now moved to tears
It’s just in silence that he hears
And mercy flows in gentle streams
And grace on silver moonbeams.
116. Our Father
Our Father
Who made the heavens
Hallowed be the ground
May your meekness reign
May your goodness drain
All evil and all pain.
Give us today your daily bread
Soften our hearts in love and joy
Greeting you in every mother
Embracing you in every brother.
Help us look beyond our sins
To the beauty you created
Within every single one
For ever and ever
Amen.
117. The Path to God
The path to god is perforce a solitary one
But friends light up the path
With tea lights along the grassy airstrip
With tiny acts of love
That serve as runways
Allowing us to take flight
In search for truth
To safely land in a place
That seems foreign and strange
Until our eyes adjust
And we recognize
A land called home
A town called community.
118. Gospel of the second chance
He preached the Gospel of the second chance
Of the seventh chance and the tenth
He refused to stone her
In the market square
As the voters wanted
But instead advised her
To keep some better company.
He ate with lawyers and with addicts
He drank with rich and poor
He didn’t ask what a man earned
How much he had in store.
Instead he looked into men’s hearts
And searched inside their soul
For that of god in every man
And always found it, if truth be told.
Slow to anger but hasty to forgive
His aim was freedom
Freeing prisoners from their cells
Freeing freemen from themselves.
119. All Alone
Into the world we came, wondering
Out we shuffle, wandering
On the road we travel and meet
Men and women, Gods and devils;
Our journey is longer and our path is steeper,
As we arrive at the end like the start
Alone – and only alone can take the final step,
Into nothing – or maybe everything.
Along uncertain untrodden paths
And so it was and will always be
The lonely march into infinity.
120. Glory Be
Glory be
The force and mind
That conceived all being.
Before time was time
When chaos reigned
Between competing galaxies.
Glory be the mind
That conceived the key
To now and eternity.
Praise be peace and silence
That provides a window
To glimpse beyond somehow.
Wonder be eternity
Where we shall ever dwell
You and me.
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