AUGUST NINE, 2006

AUGUST NINE, 2006

How many folk, devoid of thought,
Joy ride along the way
To the airport with things they brought,
With no idea of delay?
Confiscation will demand,
On this terrible flying day,
All liquids that they have in hand,
Unless packed for baggage bay.

There are those who seek to kill,
And feel that is their Father’s will;
That we are pagans to wipe out;
Of this they seem to have no doubt.
Have we really failed to show
Just how far we’ll really go
To serve in love all mankind?
If this is truth, are all men blind?

Or have we really failed the test
That God would give, in His quest,
For brotherhood in all the earth
By coming here in Jesus birth?
Have our deeds denied our words;
Have we failed as God’s shepherds,
In that we have sought our own,
And not bowed before His throne?

He came to bring abundant life,
Not to embroil us in this strife
;That teaches us to hate and kill,
And build anew Golgotha’s hill.
It was He that bore the cross,
And it surely is man’s loss
When he builds peace by war,
And thus forgets who we are.

We are servants to love and lift;
That is the Christ’s special gift,
To help mankind, who may be blind
To opportunity of every kind.
This may be out of reach
Unless we take the time to teach
That human grasp exceeds his reach
If he can grasp what love can teach.

Godly love knows no bounds
Allah’s love supports those grounds.
It is man’s interpretation
That pits a nation against a nation.
Neither God nor Allah hate;
They are One, and did create
The world, and all that in it is;
So why do we take Evil’s quiz
By taking one side, or the other,
Against our own created brother?

May man spend wealth on needs that are;
Not create needs by heinous war!
May swords refashioned to plowshare
Bring peace and harmony everywhere!
May war machines be extinct
And love of man become distinct
To co-create with Power Divine
The world for which we do so pine.
Orion N. Lewis, 8-09-06

AUGUST NINE, 2006

How many folk, devoid of thought,
Joy ride along the way
To the airport with things they brought,
With no idea of delay?
Confiscation will demand,
On this terrible flying day,
All liquids that they have in hand,
Unless packed for baggage bay.

There are those who seek to kill,
And feel that is their Father’s will;
That we are pagans to wipe out;
Of this they seem to have no doubt.
Have we really failed to show
Just how far we’ll really go
To serve in love all mankind?
If this is truth, are all men blind?

Or have we really failed the test
That God would give, in His quest,
For brotherhood in all the earth
By coming here in Jesus birth?
Have our deeds denied our words;
Have we failed as God’s shepherds,
In that we have sought our own,
And not bowed before His throne?

He came to bring abundant life,
Not to embroil us in this strife
;That teaches us to hate and kill,
And build anew Golgotha’s hill.
It was He that bore the cross,
And it surely is man’s loss
When he builds peace by war,
And thus forgets who we are.

We are servants to love and lift;
That is the Christ’s special gift,
To help mankind, who may be blind
To opportunity of every kind.
This may be out of reach
Unless we take the time to teach
That human grasp exceeds his reach
If he can grasp what love can teach.

Godly love knows no bounds
Allah’s love supports those grounds.
It is man’s interpretation
That pits a nation against a nation.
Neither God nor Allah hate;
They are One, and did create
The world, and all that in it is.
So why do we take Evil’s quiz
By taking one side, or the other,
Against our own created brother?

May man spend wealth on needs that are;
Not create needs by heinous war!
May swords refashioned to plowshare
Bring peace and harmony everywhere!
May war machines be extinct
And love of man become distinct
To co-create with Power Divine
The world for which we do so pine.

A POWERFUL GOD

If we become CAPTAIN of our soul,
And feel we have complete control
Of all that happens in our days,
Do we need God to whom Christ prays?

“If it be possible, let this cup pass;”
Would God ignore his Only Son?
May man see through theology glass
That shows us God, when said and done?

For me, God dwells in human hearts;
His tabernacle He builds right there;
Omnipresence, more than arts,
Reveals a God we all can share.

We speak of Heaven as his home;
Do we not pray for “heaven on earth”?
If His great Spirit makes hearts His Home,
Is this not then our second birth?

It is His Spirit that shows His face,
Not for human eyes to see,
But by that Spirit he gives us grace
To be more like we long to be.

Yes, we drink cups we wish would pass,
As well as cups filled with joy;
We all see “darkly, as through a glass“,
Struggling to be more like His Boy.

Is not this then, “GOD WITH US”,
The Spirit no one can deny?
How great that God so trusts us
That in his Son He willed to die.

Let us look deep within our hearts
To find the trust and love therein;
That sight will help us do our parts
In all the good GOD DOES SHARE IN.

A BETTER WAY

How much, my Homeland, do we want peace?
What strong effort will we release
To win the minds of every race,
Project the kinds of face to face
Care and concern which wins most hearts,
And helps them learn to do their parts?

In building lives which learn to earn,
We help husbands, also wives, soon discern
Open doors at their doors,
Which say they need not be so poor.
They soon can learn, with their households
As opportunity soon unfolds.

This feeds the poor, clothes and shelters beyond our reach;
Shows the world “a sure-fire lure” by which at last we can impeach
Violent hatred, which leads to war, as others see us as we are.
Far more circumspect than building walls made by fear,
Which walls grow taller year by year,
As we spend billions in our fright, the very thing that makes men fight.

Armies trained to show men how to farm a field,
And raise a cow, as poor enjoy the certain yield,
Would give a strong right step up, rebuild men’s pride,
Take away that bitter cup that mankind drunk, as their pride died
For lack of ways to make a living,
Teach their children, protect their health, limit their giving
The real true base of world-wide wealth.

AVOID THE TSUNAMI

I am not a prophet, and not very wise,
But I stand in assurance as I’m led to advise
That a nation divided will surely fall,
Or give up division, for the sake of us all.

Terrible hurricanes have ravished our shores,
But they are minimal to storms at our doors;
Broken nations don’t break by storm,
But rather division, which becomes the norm.

I applaud discussion of world-wide events,
But partisan division makes a nation too tense
To work as a union in brotherhood
To establish in love that which is good.

Let us look for the best either party suggests,
Forgetting election as we meet the tests
That life imposes like hurricane winds
Lest the quake of division bring tsunami ends.

BEE ATTITUDE

How strange that a bee
On a greeting card
Could excite down deep in me
This poetry writing bard.
Perhaps it’s not the bee
That gives me this insight,
But she who brought the bee to be
Who causes me to write.

Far sweeter than the honey,
That honey bee can make,
Is love so bright and sunny
From which we all partake
When Lara, with her happy smile
Creates her personal gift,
Enabling us to walk that mile
In which we often need a lift.

So, as through dark and dreary days,
With husband worn and sick,
My sister often in a daze,
Hardly knowing which path to pick,
Lara’s bee will lead the way
To help her send her friends a smile
Which, in turn, will cheer her day,
As she walks this troubled mile.

May God bless you, Lara,
Even as you have blessed my sister,
And her very sick husband,
Both of whom have a very high
Interest in bees. Love, Orion

ARROGANCE TO ACCEPTANCE

Arrogance died as Joseph applied
The mercies of God to sins of his brothers;
Is freedom denied where memory has died
To pain we have suffered through deeds of others?

Joseph now ruled where he had been schooled
To trust in God though he was in prison;
Is faith not so tooled that man is not fooled
By hardship in life as faith has arisen?

Be still in your heart and look for that part
That God has in mind for days in your life.
For faith’s great art is to know from the start
That there is great profit in all of our strife.

Be still and know that God loves us so
That He can make pain into unending pleasure;
His Spirit will show where we are to go
To inherit with joy the greatest of treasure.

We have a treasure beyond any measure
When we truly trust in God and man;
We cannot measure our heavenly treasure,
But God and man certainly can.

BOY’S TINKERTOYS

Man and his tinkertoys!
Skyscrapers, tall and strong!
Imaginations of bigger boys
Challenge problems of housing throng.

Megalopolis spread!
Eating up farm land
Brings to us a certain dread
That spread out cities get that land.

Can we go “up” instead of “out”,
To save farm land to furnish food?
It is the future we think about,
And pray “no food” does not intrude!

Fancy prices buy the farms,
Spreading cities day by day;
We welcome them with open arms,
Thinking not of what we’ll pay.

So, tinkertoys, keep our boys
Building dreams toward the sky,
While farmers of the land rejoice
In growing food in good supply.

ABOVE WEST 84TH

Here I sit above the street,
Watching cars and people pass,
Quite above the trials they meet
In the midst of life’s morass.

Some seem hurried as they move
Along West eighty-fourth;
Others seem more in the groove
With what life now brings forth.

I wonder why some look so sad,
As if life dealt a losing hand,
And others smile and look so glad
One would think they owned the land?

Some seem to have the look of pain
As worry shapes their wrinkled brow,
And others seem to walk on gain;
All their life a “Golden Cow”!

Is life unfair in what she gives;
Does she let favorite people win?
Or does luck hinge on how man lives,
Or simply what he’s involved in?

Happiness, divined by choice,
Is attitude we strive to build
Until it is an inner voice
Pronouncing peace that we have willed?

CHARACTER STUDY

The character of man is seldom discerned
By looking at his clothes,
But much of his actual nature learned
By hearing what he knows.

It is also true that no man is wise
Simply because he is good at rhymes,
But rather more able to advise
If he is acquainted with most times.

What he has learned, plus what he has done,
Combine to build his knowledge;
Then people he joins in labor and fun,
May grant degrees not earned in college.

Great character is earned by strong outreaches,
Seeking to meet the needs of our brothers;
Without outreach, our character impeaches
The good reputation we might have with others.