Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sunday Sabbath Poetry: Derek Webb

This Too Shall Be Made Right

by Derek Webb

People love you the most for the things you hate
And hate you for loving the things that you cannot keep straight
People judge you on a curve
And tell you you’re getting what you deserve
This too shall be made right

Children cannot learn when children cannot eat
Stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
Children dream of wishing wells
Whose waters quench all the fires of Hell
This too shall be made right

The earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
Wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
We say we’re just trying to stay alive
But it looks so much more like a way to die
This too shall be made right

There’s a time for peace and there is a time for war
There's a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
A time for babies to lose their lives
A time for hunger and genocide
This too shall be made right

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who I choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
And that’s not just murder it’s suicide
This too shall be made right

Oh this too shall be made right

- - - - - - -

Given Life

Vocation is sunrise
But sunset is sabbath
Horizon reveals part
But silence unearths all

The rest of God is whole
As earth and heaven formed
As light and darkness one
Together eyelids close

The skies relinquish speech
For fear wisdom begets
The earth is quiet all
But all break out in song!

The unity of word
And song and poem full
Is not the gluttony
Of breathless heart attack

But thickest balance beam
Is given life, and thanks
To work and sleep, to love
And weep, is marathon

Of goodness even in
The fallenness of now
For hope is rhythm lived
When God entrusted still

Illumines work in light
As candle flickers, wanes
The one creating day
Sustaining even night

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