[Oe List ...] Some poems

[NANCY TRASK Owner via OE]

Thank you, Jim. These poems add to my armor as I pray for courage. I will share them with my local groups. 
Nancy Trask 





From: "James Wiegel via OE" <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> 
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>, "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> 
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2017 9:05:34 AM 
Subject: [Oe List ...] Some poems 



"TWO POEMS FROM THIS MORNING 


A Ritual to Read to Each Other" 
by William Stafford 


If you don't know the kind of person I am 
and I don't know the kind of person you are 
a pattern that others made may prevail in the 
world 
and following the wrong god home we may miss 
our star. 


For there is many a small betrayal in the mind, 
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break 
sending with shouts the horrible errors of 
childhood 
storming out to play through the broken dike. 


And as elephants parade holding each 
elephant's tail, 
but if one wanders the circus won't find the 
park, 
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty 
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact. 


And so I appeal to a voice, to something 
shadowy, 
a remote important region in all who talk: 
though we could fool each other, we should 
consider— 
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the 
dark. 


For it is important that awake people be awake, 
or a breaking line may discourage them back to 
sleep; 
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe — 
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep. 




Deeply grateful to Helen Gerhardt for this: ............................ I know, I know 
If you could go back you 
would walk with Jesus 
You would march with King 
Maybe assassinate Hitler 
At least hide Jews in your basement 
It would all be clear to you 
But people then, just like you 
were baffled, had bills 
to pay and children they didn’t 
understand and they too 
were so desperate for normalcy 
they made anything normal 
Even turning everything inside out 
Even killing, and killing, and it’s easy 
for turning the other cheek 
to be looking the other way, for walking 
to be talking, and they hid 
in their houses 
and watched it on television, when they had television, 
and wrung their hands 
or didn’t, and your hands 
are just like theirs. Lined, permeable, 
small, and you 
would follow Caesar, and quote McCarthy, and Hoover, and you would want 
to make Germany great again 
Because you are afraid, and your 
parents are sick, and your 
job pays s@$t and where’s your 
dignity? Just a little dignity and those kids sitting down in the highway, 
and chaining themselves to 
buildings, what’s their f@*#king 
problem? And that kid 
That’s King. And this is Selma. And Berlin. And Jerusalem. And now 
is when they need you to be brave. 
Now 
is when we need you to go back 
and forget everything you know 
and give up the things you’re chained to 
and make it look so easy in your 
grandkids’ history books (they should still have them, kinehora) 
Now 
is when it will all be clear to them. 
~Danny Bryck 





Jim Wiegel 
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Tel. 011-623-936-8671 or 011-623-363-3277 
jfwiegel at yahoo.com 
www.partnersinparticipation.com 


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