Carolyn W's Poetry Site - poems, poetry, touch of God

Abortion
Abortion is an issue
got far out of hand
and it was argued hotly
all across the land.

Men were on the rampage
and took a bitter stand.
Congress rose and shouted,
each of them a man.

One thing should be clear,
and clear right from the start,
men should all keep out of it
and not take any part.

To get up and to argue
something not their own
should only be a sham to them
and never be condoned.

Now among the women
I think most agree
it’s up to each of them
individually.

It’s certainly not a question
for national debate
to argue out the dreadfulness
of what should be her fate.

And so the men should be quiet,
and all should step aside
and let the women ponder,
and quietly decide.

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Mother’s Day
Tired mothers throughout the land,
hanging on the best they can.
Putting up with poverty and hate,
a tiring struggle seems to be their fate.

Another war for Mother’s Day,
gloomy are the things they say.
And as their pride go off to war,
men and fighting evermore.

WHEAT and RICE
How can it be from a grain of wheat
a nation can be fed?
And people by the millions
eat their daily bread.

How can it be from a grain of rice
a nation can suffice?

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Stepping on Xmas
We don’t deserve a Xmas,
not this year it seems:
our marauding country
has shattered many dreams.

Its intents and purposes
are only now for war,
and the lowly prince of peace
is sought by it no more.

And the peace is shattered
and good will looked upon
as not abiding on this earth
when every hope is gone.

And so we play the tyrant
stepping on the dreams
of men of good will everywhere
with a martial beat.

Stamping out their Xmas
with the beat of war
till all of them have vanished
or heard of any more.

When You Can Read the Traces and the Footsteps
When you can read the traces and the footsteps,
life is strange indeed.
And see the undercurrents
that are different than they seem.

And all the world is strange
and different than before,
and leads your mind to unfamiliar shores.

And blood and thirst and greed
seize upon their prey,
and turn the dimming light far, far away.

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Strong
Sometimes we are in awe
of people who are strong,
mighty men and emperors
whose power with fear is fraught.

And while some rule with temperance,
others rule with dred,
and terror oft surrounds them
the living and the dead.

And of the ones we see today
many are the same,
ruling in our daily life
with force that has no shame.

Some are terrors in their homes
ad everyone give in
to their constant roar
or their slightest whim.

We find in many people
who seem to be so strong
they have to have their own way
and have it all along.

And what has seemed so powerful
crumbles in our hand –
they are only childish,
if we understand.

And while they may strike terror,
destroy or even kill,
they themselves are childish,
having their own will.

And tho they may run over us
the glory is all gone,
for they are only childish
and weak instead of strong.

We never think the same again
of people such as these,
but see thru them for what they are,
only childish.

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Enigma
Egypt and the Nile,
Egypt and the tombs,
Egypt and the priests
and dead that were entombed.

I heard that Christ went there
after he did die
and taught within a pyramid
to those who were inside.

Egypt with its ancient lore
profound in many ways
may have been a meeting place
for most enlightened sages.

In our country we find too
an omen very strange
overlooked by most of us
but close within our range.

On the back of dollar bills
it is not illusion,
but pictured a great pyramid
and symbols in profusion.

Some may know just what it means
but yet there is a space
for greatest awe and wonder
on this our seal engraved.

Democracy’s from Greece
bit it is Egypt here,
in our country’s origin,
great seal very clear.

Why was Egypt chosen
symbolic to our states,
not the form of government
but mystery relates.

Is it all a prophecy
or does it represent
ideals of the highest kind
for our government.

Someone very learned,
conceiving with great care,
inspired or dedicated
must have put them there.

And in this pyramid
the layers are thirteen.
Above a strange phenomena
mysterious it seems.

The apex is uplifted
by a powerful light
and in the midst of it
is an all-seeing eye.

Who made this mystery
and what was his intent,
this eye that stares above
and looks without relent.

Below a desert or a sea
surrounding all the stone
and this great seal our country’s
it was proud to own.

The mystery of the pyramids
was chosen for its theme
and not the form of government
which was democracy.

And now we never notice it
or wonder at the sight,
this omen of the highest source
or our predestined life.

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Pass the Torch to the Next Runner
As in the Olympic games.
From Athens unto Sparta
I think it was they came.

Our democratic way of life,
be it as it may,
came from Greece and Athens
in a bygone day.

And whether it is government
or learning or in thought,
there are many things in life
where light to us was brought.

And o’er the rugged country
as the runner ran,
passed the torch unto the next
and the next begin.

And so it goes from hand to hand
or from mind to mind,
as earnestly the runner
passes on the light.

And so the children learn
from a distant past
lessens won in anguish, grief
whose thought should hold them fast.

and while today they do not care,
others cherish deep
the values of their country
in which they were steeped.

And as it’s slipping fast away
is the light yet gone
or are there any left
yet to carry on.

No runners at the ready
to carry on the torch?
And the leaders yet again
lift it as before.

And carry the great weight
and the tangled mess
of everybody’s children,
amid their tiredness.

And asked if they had strength
to do it once again,
and quietly picked up the yoke
and silently began
to work until they dropped –
they were that kind of man.

For they knew the right from wrong
that had slipped away
amid the power and greed
and the wild foray.

And they went straight ahead
regardless of the size
and did what they could do
while it multiplied.

And whether any win or not
some have long begun
to fill in for the hopeless
and shattered younger ones.

And hold out till another hand
reaches for the torch
or die within their tracks
and the world be dark.

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Empty
The churches lock us out
and all week long they say
no one is allowed –
go away.

Doors are locked and bolted,
windows have alarms
warning you to stay away
lest you come to harm.

Where’s a place to pray,
everywhere locked out.
You may go to the Grotto
where people walk about
and find a quiet place
just to be alone
with God amid the trees
he often makes his home.

What about the churches
or one that’s close to you,
mostly are deserted
tho some have nursery school.

They were always open
when I was very young
and people could go in and pray,
a blessing well begun.

In Europe they’re a refuge
dating centuries back:
cathedrals were a sanctuary,
refuge from attack.

Two hours a week are not enough
to say you are a church,
then lock the people out,
the rest of life desert.

A working church is full of life
all throughout the day
and harbor all the lost
who cannot find their way.

If they put them into use
and someone always there
they could be a refuge
for homeless anywhere.

Most of them have kitchens
well equipped and new.
The could feed the hungry
and put them into use.

People could bring surplus food
in the neighborhood
and have something ready
nourishing and good.

Boys and girls who run away
could always find a church
as a larger family
thinking of them first.

With a meal to eat
and resting on a pew
could get themselves together
to see what they could do.

Older folks could give advice
and tell them of the town
and treat them like their own
until their way is found.

If the doors are open
and needy can come in
and homeless find a refuge,
a working faith begins.

Much to help the elderly
also can be done
and sometimes find a place for them
and care for every one.

Many folks would volunteer
their skills and labor too
to build up such a church
with things that they can do.

Some would come to help
someone else to read
or figure out their bank account
tangled and in need.

In times with many poor
and thousands of downtrodden
the problems of the modern age
must not be forgotten.

Most of us exist
on the thinnest crust
where death or less of jobs
tumbles most of us.

We may be at the bottom
almost any time
and churches that are open
would stabilize our lives.

It is the golden rule
absent in the church
where empty pews and buildings
and darkness always lurk.

It’s sad to make a commentary
on the modern church
but lying dark and empty
they are of little worth.

Of course the church is people
but buildings symbolize
the dwelling place of God
and presence in our lives.

They could be a center
for all the people’s needs
but destitute they pass them
as empty buildings preach.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before man that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 25:35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in.

Matthew 25:40 Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Here Come the White Man
Say a prayer for the Indians
we ravaged and raped
and murdered and stole from
till none did escape.

And took the green forest
and all of their land…
here come the white man.

Merciless to the last shrub
in the desert sun…
the savage white man come.

Murdered a people,
took all that they had,
drove them all back
to a dry, barren land.

It wasn’t enough
but we bought out their land
from under their feet
where they did stand.

Destruction of a race
with very ancient ways
and a lore of peace –
all to our disgrace.

And tho we may not hear them now,
their voice is almost gone,
yet to God are precious,
who knows all the wrong.

And all the blood of battle
is laid against us now,
a country built on blood
and seeped into the plow.

And so it cannot last,
for it was built on blood,
and slaughter of a people,
almost every one.

And sorrow turning into grief
as each last one lay down,
justice crumbled into dust
and nevermore was found.

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Country
A country is just what it says… country. It is not the cities,
it is the country, the land. People come and go, live and die, but the land remains. not only the land, but love of the land… love of the country.

You cannot say your country. It is not our country. We took it away from the Indians, but we can love it. It is a privilege to be here, to see the beautiful mountains and lakes and streams. It is a beautiful country.

I think the Indians loved the country and the land. It was precious to them. They named their children after the creatures and the woods and water. It was their responsibility to care for what they were named after.

Love of our country is something beautiful and majestic. It is also something settled inside you. It is wonderful and it is peace. You can’t say what it is, but it is there.

We can love other countries too in the same way, for the beauty of the land and something we feel inside. Maybe we were there one time, some time, and it left its touch on is… the feel of the dirt, the wind, anything. You belong to that land.

The Globe of the Earth
The single thing that would most improve education in this country would be to have a globe of the earth in each classroom from first grade through junior high school or beyond. Many children don’t realize the earth is a sphere or know where anything is and the parents don’t either. They have never seen it. Probably 90% of the people in this country couldn’t find our country on the globe. They don’t know where they are. We fight wars and don’t know where we are, or they are. In five minutes you can learn more from it than many books. It is fixed in your mind.

Education has very little foundation without it. In fact, the children are lost, as are the adults. Many things are a take-off from it, whether it is studying continents, oceans, geology or countries of the world. You can run your fingers along it and feel the mountains, or chains of mountains, as the ones running along the west coast of North America and South America from Alaska to the tip of Chili. Other countries study geography very well, but we know nothing about any place else. Most people are a blank about Canada. Weather reports could help this. How interesting to hear the weather across the world, or north of the border. You can look out the window and see what it’s doing here.

You can study ocean currents or the migration of people. You can see the different languages in the names of the cities of the world. Everything is real, it’s not just a word in a book. Almost everything proceeds from it. In an easy way it fixes things in your mind. Our country is one of the poorest in the world for knowing anything about other countries or even where they are. Parents can always get one to use at home if there are none anywhere else.

I think Congressmen are no better than the general run of the people or young people about knowing countries or even where they are. If they get appointed as ambassador to a country they may have to look it up in the atlas, let alone know its history and people or even speak the language.

We don’t need computers in grade school, we need globes of the earth.

The Old Times
How nice it would have been to come out West 100 or 200 years ago – no phones, no TV, no planes, no footballs, no cars. Life was real. TV is nothing but staring at a picture of some place else. You’re not connected to life around you. It is somebody else’s life.

Then life was hard and dangerous too, but it was real. How much better than sitting all day like a secretary. How much more life, real life.

No welfare, no social security. Sink or swim. Everyone pulling his own weight. People did things for themselves. The farmers and ranchers told the weather themselves. They didn’t go to school six or seven years to tell the weather the next day. They looked at the sky and things around them, not TV. It is a lost art. Someone else is doing it for you so you lose it yourself. Can you imagine the farers and ranchers standing around TV to see what the weather would be the next day.

No canned ideas from TV but thinking for themselves, living their own life. Real. Hard and real. When a man’s word was his word. A place where you can keep your business to yourself and there are few files and records. A place you can start over if you wish. You are not caught in the system. Living close to the land, the rain, the crops, the seasons.

There is plenty of land in this country, a thousand miles between the west coast and Denver, almost empty, and a thousand miles more to the Mississippi, but people stay cooped up in the cities with noise and police, easy to be dictated to. They should spread out on the land.

Oh for the old times, no phones. When a thousand miles was a thousand miles, and space was space. No picking up the phone ad space doesn’t exist. It is a shock. You move out West and suddenly you’re East again. Connections of this kind are severed. To live your own life, not vicariously. Working and living.

The Slow Wheels of Time
The wheels of time turn slowly, century after century and thousands of years after thousands of years. Even this is not far enough in God’s time. Even so, each day counts, that we live in God. All time is his.

Often what is hard to see close up become clearer in time. Old people often see trends in their country that young people do not. Wisdom is gained by time or experience in time. Distance makes it clearer.

It is said that the mills of the gods grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine. One meaning of this is that we may think we get by with something at one stage of life but it comes back to us later on – it was not solved or done. It came to us again. If we have other lives, it may come back to us at another time. Our good deeds and our bad deeds affect our next life. God sees over time.

Our country is always in high gear, rushing ahead, admiring speed and up-to-the-minute news. Rush, rush, rush. We don’t sit back and think enough, not only where we’re going but where we’ve been. Everything has to be new, like new fashions. We like new ways and reject the old. If we don’t know the past, we can’t see the present like it is, in perspective. We can see the whole picture or have anything to compare it with. Older people do see the changes over time, notice the slow waves rise and fall or fortunes won or lost over time. There are slow waves over time but you have to stop and notice them. Time moves in waves past our lifetime, thousands of years and more. We are part of it whether we see it or not, whether we see our place in time.

The Day the Computers Stopped
It wasn’t electricity. No one knew what it was. They just wouldn’t work. No matter how many times they pushed the buttons, they just wouldn’t work. There was consternation and frustration, even alarm. What would happen? As the size of the problem gradually began to be known across the country, alarm did set in. It was everywhere.

Soon each company was in disarray. Incoming mail piled up on the desks and couldn’t be processed. Although they tried, it seemed too much to do by hand. Some people were laid off. Others couldn’t be paid without the machines. Buyers and sellers were helpless. The market was tangled. Where was the free market? Indeed it seemed to depend on a machine.

As things got worse and worse, the country was in a state similar to the Great Depression. All services were in a confusion. Innocent people were victims. No one seemed to straighten it out. Where was American ingenuity? Government was in a mess too. Social security checks couldn’t be processed. Information was at a standstill. Crime took advantage of all this. Everything got worse. The old depression was not dependent on a machine.

To an older person it does seem as if the future of the country depends on machines, dependence not found in their time. Why should the country depend on machines? Where is the land and the sea that they once knew.

Smoking in this Country
Smoking goes back as far as history. Indians had peace pipes. Other people had hookas or cigar-like cigarettes. President Jackson’s wife smoked on the porch of the white house. Doctors have smoked and priests have smoked. Smoking and drinking are allowed in the Catholic church. Even the Pope smokes sparingly after a strenuous day.

The campaign against smoking is another Puritanical movement in this country. If you don’t want to smoke, don’t smoke, but don’t tell other not to. The same goes for abortion. What about alcoholism? You’ll never find Congress banning alcohol.

What about drugs. They don’t say anything about that. Drugs are rampant in this country but they omit them entirely in their drive not to smoke. Smoking doesn’t hold a candle to drugs. Millions of wasted lives and crime. Every kind of crime. Even the streets aren’t safe. Shooting at people in passing cars, etc. A country in turmoil. What about that? They don’t tackle that. They want a smoke free country by the year 2000. Evidently they prefer drugs, crime and corruption to smoking. They know the country won’t be drug free. What about Churchill and his big cigar? Would they not allow him to come to this country?

They tax cigarettes more and more but drugs are let free. They say it is not smoking itself that causes the trouble but the filters and the chemicals they spray on tobacco. What about that. Make smoking safe. At any rate, remember – don’t smoke of you don’t want to but don’t tell others not to. This is a good maxim for many things.

Fox Hunting
Who can ever say that fox hunting is a “sport”? A poor little creature is mercilessly hunted down by huge horses, huge people on them and many pursing dogs, all barking and clamoring. Pursued till the end, mercilessly.

And have they ordered this adorable creature and fed it, until it is time for its pursuit and death?? Did it have its last meal? Is it carefully taken care of until the time is ripe. Then it is released to its fate.

If I ever had the privilege of seeing a red fox I would consider it the grace of God, and would wait from afar and watch it. How beautiful they are!

The only thing I had against Jackie Kenney was that she had fax hunts on her estate, and participated in them as far as I know. How could she???

The bugle sound and the people are dressed up in their special outfits, red jackets, and black boots, astride their big horses. The horses, of course, have no natural interest in chasing foxes. They could co-exist side by side.

The fox is released and the chase begins. The baying hounds are quick to pursue. The fox is alarmed at this change of events and all the noise and the dogs and runs.

Nowhere to hide: the hounds pursue it. Finally with heart beating wildly and out of breath, it collapses. The race is won. And then do they shoot it? I don’t even know. It is already almost dead.

And this is called sport by the rich and famous. I hope it dies out, and red foxes are considered for their beauty and loveliness. They are made by God, and will go to be with him in all his great love for his creatures.

Solomon
Richard and I both thought that the Song of Solomon was a love song, pure and simple, and had nothing to do with Christ marrying the church as my Bible says. After all, he had a harem of 1,000 women or more, and Jesus wasn’t born till 1,000 years later.

In the 5th verse it says, “I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem…” etc. and 7th verse, “like the tents of Kedar”.

David desired Bathsheba, and I think she was also black. Their eldest son, (after the first child died, which he had had out of wedlock), was Solomon. The Queen of Sheba came to visit him, and I think she was black. I heard they had a child and she stayed till it was born. I don’t know what became of it.

David, and thus Solomon, were, according to the Bible, direct ancestors to Jesus. In my Bible, the ancestry of Jesus, traced back to Ruth, David, Solomon (in the genealogy in the back, say it ends with Joseph,) where as the Bible makes it clear that it ended with Jesus. Thus Jesus would be mixed black and white, and the genealogy in the back of my Bible lied that it ended with Joseph. this is like covering up that Christ was Jewish, even King of the Jews, by painting him with long, golden hair by the European artists, making him acceptable to the people. Also they could love Christ and hate the Jews when Jesus said he was King of the Jews. I believe the Pope said something about this too.

In Europe there are some black statues of Christ. Poland has a black Madonna who comes about every 650 years. Monks wait for her in a cave. (Priests)

On the Gold Coast of Africa is the largest church in the world. The Pope came to dedicate it. They were bemoaning the fact that there was nothing black to put on the walls (paintings). If Solomon was black, which he says himself, then there is plenty to put on the walls, Christ himself maybe even being black.

We don’t want to think this way. We have been brainwashed into believing that he is white, like ourselves. We have hated the Jews when Christ himself was King of the Jews. The Pope himself says he doesn’t understand how people can hate the Jews when Christ themselves was their King.

Freedom of Speech
You can say anything you want to
but you may have to take the
consequences.

Phone
Take it of the hook –
Disconnect the line –
Throw it in the river –
This is catch-up time.

Don’t want anticipation;
Don’t want to be disturbed;
for life’s golden hours
are quietest, I’ve heard.

Don’t want high discussion,
don’t want to go no place.
Just enjoy the quiet,
and tensions’ care efface.

Confusion
It’s all Greek to me,
foreign as can be.
How’s I get mixed up
in all this unknown stuff?

I can’t run computers
or calculators too
or any of this stuff
I’m supposed to do.

I guess I am defeated
and have a fever too
and can’t do anything
that I’m supposed to do.

If they say work is simple
as it’s done nowadays,
I’d have to disagree
for I’m in disarray.

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Fillings……………

If like a computer
we clear the machine,
and take away worries
and cares like a dream.

- - -

Life comes upon us ready or not,
and usually we’re not allowed to stop,
but see it thru unto its end,
where’re it leads, where’re it sends.

- - -

One day farther into destiny
incessant time has wrung.
Further into fate,
our tenuous lives undone.

- - -

We say a lot of things
but what we leave unsaid
is often far more potent
than our words have led.

- - -

When he left his place of work
he let his smile down,
and as he hurried on toward home
it turned into a frown.

- - -

If an impartial witness watched our daily life
in this country (the rat race we call it), and
all the crime on TV and in the papers, and
corruption in high places, would he
say we were civilized?

- - -

Mary, “I’m not Catholic, I’m Jewish.”

- - -

Star of David and cross (wearing Geralding)
“Christ as Jewish, (King of Jews) and she
said, “you know what the cross means”.
--Geralding Nesbitt, Georgetown, Ill.
October 4, 2003 (in phone call)

- - -

I asked a man in India,
“What is the difference between
your country and ours?”
He said, “In your country love is sex,
in ours, it is a mother’s love for her
child. A mother’s love is greatest.”

- - -

God is love.
All the different religions are like the five men
describing as elephant – rope (lait) ears, sides, etc.
They quarrel and fight –
All is comical – God is love.
We all know the difference between love and hate,
and quarreling.
Meanwhile he waits…waiting for love.

“like the song
Nature Boy – The greatest thing
you’ll ever learn,
is just to love
and to be loved in return”

- - -

Finis –
We quarrel and hate
but all along God said to love.
It is right in front of us –
just to love.

- - -

Jesus said:
I. “Love the Lord thy God with all they heart
and with all thy soul and mind and strength.
II. “Love they neighbor as thyself.” (Golden rule)
the same in every religion.

- - -
The day is gone and left behind,
with ruts and scars upon my mind.
And channels deep where terrors go,
and only sleep cam stem their flow.

- - -

If all of your enemies died on the spot,
and all of the people you hated a lot,
the roster swept clean and remembrance left bare,
who would be left for your glory to share?

- - -

Work is like a treadmill,
with always more ahead.

- - -

This country is not a melting pot,
it’s indigestion (and fragmentation).

- - -

Join the Navy and see what’s left of the world.

- - -

I wonder if some folks leave home
to get away from a noisy phone.
And find some nice, secluded spot
where they can rest, and always not
be at the mercy of folks and friends
who call and call, and call again.

Be not available, not at home,
to get away from a noisy phone.
It’s quite a state, when folks must leave,
to get some quiet, and some peace.

- - -

Don’t punch no more in my computer.
Don’t want to know no more
of ugliness and tragedy
and crime and hate and war.

Let me be content for now
to love thy good below
and all the things you gave to us
and all the things bestowed.

- - -

Have you made TV your God?
Watch it all the time.
People must be silent,
can’t miss a single line.

The art of conversation
is strictly for the birds,
except for TV idols
nothing can be heard.

Is TV now your idol?
Is TV number one?
Forget the cares and children,
this program isn’t done.

Is it a state of mind
that must be carried on.
The programs comes alive,
and all our cares are gone.

Almost every evening,
and all the weekend too,
every kind of sports
for the men to view.

I think the situation,
and it’s fair to say –
they’re married to their TV set,
and cannot get away.

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