Saturday, May 9, 2009

Love so amazing, love so devine

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it mankind!
Pulling the trigger won't save your life.
Pointing the gun at your neighbor, your self
does nothing to get you to heaven from hell.
Why do you battle each other outside?
Why do you fight with yourself in your mind?

Stop it! Stop it! Stop humanity!
This isn't the answer, can't you see
that your rage has gotten you nowhere.
Wherever you want to be, it can't get you there.
You curse, you swear, you call on
gods you don't believe upon.

You cry "wolf!" when the only demon is you.
Your heart aches from the tantrum it threw
when you failed to find satisfaction
in drink, rape, violent actions.
You can't find the truth there.
It isn't there to find.
You have to look elsewhere,
It isn't in your mind.

The blind leading the blind
we can't see ourselves well.
But well enough to find
that we deserve hell.
That law takes no physicist to explain.
it has been written on our hearts.
The pain we give will be paid back in pain.
We can't be saved by our efforts.

But there was one man, like us and yet not,
who knew who we were, but by choice forgot.
Chose to forget, chose to ignore
the filth the muck and the squalor.
All it took was a touch of his robe
and years of pain were removed.
That's the kind of more-than-man who
decided to live a life that would show
the world what it really means to love.
Came to show what he was made of.
He helped, He taught, He filled
and yet, by us was killed.
On our most gruesome device
He became a sacrifice.
We couldn't understand why
He would choose to die that way.

He knew what we were like, living
like animals. But he saw something
worth dying for in us. Worth dying.
He knew that we had a feature
that made us something deeper.
More than the violence, the drugs
the curses, the sex, beer mugs.
He knew we were more than that.
That we had brought it upon humanity
He came to end this combat,
this violent war, this adversity.

And so, mankind, Stop it. Stop!
Stop living like this, there's hope
of a higher way, the way of him
who knew us better than we did
and chose to love us anyway...
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it mankind
Only love like that can save your life.
These conflicting messages,
Opposites, on opposing pages
One says death is what we deserve
eternal hell is the sentence to serve.
The other says to love each other
to love your neighbor like your brother.

This isn't a paradox
only love.
Love doesn't make sense
to us.
Our understanding is weak
so just love.
Turn a blind eye, turn the cheek,
Just. Love.

5 comments:

  1. Micah, I think this is amazing.

    "But he saw something
    worth dying for in us." What he saw was himself, what he'd put there...just gonna throw that in there.

    Nice use the word "squalor" by the way.

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  2. Great poem. There are so many good lines in here, I especially like "Your heart aches from the tantrum it threw" and "who knew us better than we did/and chose to love us anyway..."

    (Beautiful because of the message presented, as well as the delivery)

    [Grace's use of parentheses is too useful not to borrow]

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  3. Michael, Yes, when I wrote this originally in free verse, it contained something to the effect of "He saw his potential in us, like a child loves an ugly puppy that will grow into Lassie"... but it never got translated over when I switched to rhymed verse.

    (<3 parentheses)

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  4. Oh! I'm not the only one who sometimes likes to think through the concept in free verse and then make it rhyme?

    That's cool.

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  5. Awesome poem. You do everything better than me.

    Really, I love it. If I had to pick a favorite line, it might be:

    "On our most gruesome device
    He became a sacrifice."

    But there are too many good lines in there to pick just one.

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