UK writer for Assist news
Beyond Forgivness
I sat and viewed in total disbelief
as plane and tower exploded on my screen;
could accident alone bring so much grief?,
the thought that someone caused it was obscene.

And yet we know that men had planned this act,
a deed they knew would massacre and maim,
and so they flew the plane they had hijacked
to thousands kill, with pride and not with shame.

I’d heard of inhumanity to man,
its truth my senses numbed on nine eleven;
appalled that any human beings can
by any faith or hate become so driven.

All those of us who watched the horror live,
our hearts and minds went out to those who lost
a family member, how would they survive
the loss, the grief? Who could repay the cost?

And now I ask, when so much time has gone,
of those whose loved-ones died or suffer yet,
how difficult is it to carry on
when human memories cannot forget?

When everywhere, it seems, such killing thrives,
and perpetrators never show remorse,
but glorify their bombs, and guns, and knives;
is taking our revenge the wisest course?

We claim we have a Christian heritage:
see churches filled; send mission’ries abroad;
we tithe; we sing; we say we do not judge;
we say, above all else ‘We trust the Lord.’

‘As we forgive, forgive us when we sin,’
we say as we repeat the Christ-taught prayer;
inviting God our hearts to look within.
I ask – would Jesus find forgiveness there?

The commonest response? ‘You ask too much!;
forgiveness is impossible for us.’
While some would claim that no-one asks for such,
some others have to say ‘Well, Jesus does.’

Christ is the life which Christians try to live;
if we but let Christ live we’ll know His peace;
it is the love He is that He can give,
and, as He loves, forgiveness brings release.

© Gordon Bailey 2007

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by Catherine Donaldson-Evans/TN : Aug 18, 2007 : FoxNews
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293615,00.html

Poem: And She Called— "It's about the military service and the reason we do things. We just defend the country, no questions asked. As a family, we do it. The poem was just utmost admiration and respect for the individuals that are there. ...They've answered the country's call."

(North Carolina)—Staff Sgt. Lawrence E. Dean II, 30, is a Marine, and a poet, stationed at Cherry Point base in North Carolina. According to a FOXNews report, he writes and performs rap-style poetry using the stage name "Life."

Reporter Catherine Donaldson-Evans notes that when the YouTube video of Dean reciting the poem he wrote about defending America's freedom garnered close to 400,000 views in just two days earlier this week, he decided to reveal his identity and speak to FOXNews.com.

"It almost leaves you speechless," he said on Wednesday of the reaction to his poetry. "Just to see it affected that many people—if it made that many people think, it was worth every bit of that three minutes... How do you explain the unexplainable? It's a blessing. A lot of people that have to answer that call appreciate it. That's bigger than me."

The poem he wrote—which begins, "And she called..."—isn't about the experience of fighting a war. It's about what the armed forces do. "It's about the military service and the reason we do things. We just defend the country, no questions asked. As a family, we do it. The poem was just utmost admiration and respect for the individuals that are there. ... They've answered the country's call."

Says Donaldson-Evans: "He was compelled to write the poem about two-and-a-half years ago, he said, when his grandmother asked him one day what would make him go to war."

"The answer I can give is just, 'Because she called,'" said Dean, referring to America. "She called," Dean says in the videotaped poem as he stands before a U.S. Marine Corps crest hanging on the barracks wall. "From the bowels of Ground Zero/she sent this 911 distress signal/because she was in desperate need of a hero/and didn't have time to decipher what to call 'em/so she called 'em all her children/and said, 'I am America, and I'm calling on the land of the free'/So they answered ... /You see, someone attempted to choke the voice/of the one who gave us the right for choice/and now she was callin'/And somebody had to answer/Who was going to answer?/So they did."

"Everybody loves him," said one of his close friends in the Marines, who asked not to be identified. "He has got to be the most motivated and inspirational person I have ever met in my life. He speaks from the heart."

 

 

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