Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem! A Lament for Spirit Haunted Souls










Sometimes I am so disturbed by an event that I have too many thoughts to put into a straight reflection, and though I am not a trained poet ,(any constructive advice is appreciated) it is the only way to relate the emotions that I feel.  I originally wrote this  lament as an assignment for our Biblical School in Omaha. I choose to write about my disturbance over a few horrific events in 2008 and 2009, namely the horrible Von Maur shootings and the events surrounding the Boston Craigslist killings.  Two young men, created in the image and likeness of our Lord, whose moral and spiritual weakness completely undid them.  As individuals they were completely different, there corruption, however, was diabolically similar. While our  post Christian, scientific humanistic culture removes moral barriers, these young men progressed into selfishness and darkness that left their souls empty of hope. And we our stunned; we fool ourselves, by trying to remove the weapons that destroy the body, while complacently allowing these philosophies that subtly numb our yearning for transcendence and bind us to finite earthly hope.  Paving a rocky pathway to a desolation so dark that it claims you past, present and future. Destroying both body and soul! I still pray for their souls; I wish not one to go to Hell, particularly youth whose debasement was added and abetted by our toxic culture. I now add another young man to this lament!


Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem!


My soul is sorrowful, even unto death
Take pity on our children
For we have lead them to darkness
Progressed them to the edge of Sheol;
Chaos
We despised archetypes,
Gave them platitudes, de-mythologized their world
Diminished hopes, famished souls.
God, you would be their strength!
Their beauty!
Little souls now claim their weaknesses as their identity;
In the beginning it was not so!
Exchanging glory for shame, and call it freedom;
Post Christian,
trans-gendered slavery.


My soul is sorrowful, even unto death
Our children cry for strength,
They cry for meaning,
Purpose, dignity and honor;
Courage
Deathly emptiness haunts them.
They grasp at pleasure, wealth, and fame,
Debased yearning for transcendence, hearken to the siren song of
Infamy.
We have ignored eternal truth;
We have told them to find their own truth;
Founded in philosophies that have roots in
Selfishness;
In weakness;
In darkness.


Why are we surprised when evil overtakes them?
(Let your mighty wind blow over the abyss)
Why are we surprised that they have no strength?
(Let your mighty wind blow over the abyss)
When darkness debases and seduces them?
(Let you mighty wind blow over our souls)


My soul is sorrowful, even unto death
We are bloated with hedonism
Deprived of true joy
Darkness stalks us
We lack stamina, mere phantoms we go our way
Our eyes grow dim
Why are you sleeping?
Our young men are emasculated;
seeking immortality through robbery, rape and murder!
Why has nobody told you?
Our young women are barren;
grasping at their beauty, ignorant of its meaning.
They have bought and sold you!
Empty bombast!  Slaves of corruption!
Why are you still sleeping?


My soul is sorrowful even unto death!
Within our midst kindle a blazing heart, multiply virtue
Awake Fear of the Lord
We fly to your protection in our desperation.
Let no more of our children be devoured by Leviathan,
ensnared by their own hunger;
The serpent who removes the small snares,
lures us to a bottomless pit.
Chaos!
Slaves of corruption!
Chaos!
Gratifying every desire of the flesh,
To become a rotted loincloth.
Not clinging to You!
Rotted loincloths!


In the beginning it was not so!
(Let your mighty wind blow over the abyss!)
Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
(Let you might wind blow over the abyss!)
Do not fear what harms the body!
(Let the mighty wind blow over the chaotic abyss!)

Give us the strength to endure your justice!

Give us the heart to endure your mercy!

Peace and Grace,
Heidi



Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Famished Heart

Famished Heart


I am invisible to the world,
Invisibly held fast in Your protection; held fast in your favor.
I grope, grasp and stumble, Your strength upholds me  
Vanity of vanities; You call me beyond my nothingness,
Alluring me unto You, whispering to my restless, famished heart.

Words cannot describe my joy, Yet my voice lifts to You in praise
In You, dead wombs beget generations,
Lifeless souls enter eternity.
Rescue me from the isolation of myself.
Fill my famished heart with joy beyond all words!

My paths you make straight.
My restlessness you fill with holy desire.
Purifying love burns through me like fire;
Your cleansing wrath pours on me like water;
Illuminating my path, refreshing my footsteps.

You erode walls that dam my passion; walls that hedge my charity.
Your justice surges like water;
Your goodness flows like an unfailing stream.
My heart is raised in Your might, resurrected for Your glory.
The profane washes away; the precious revealed, my soul is scoured.

The quiet lullaby is my song of praise!
All who hear me, praise Him!
For God lifts the lowly; sees the unseen;
 Illuminates the ever present beauty.
Famished hearts filled with joy beyond all  words!
Halleluiah!

 Copyright 2011 Heidi Knofczynski