Good and evil

GOOD AND EVIL

Good and evil

Your perception is askew

You try to get it

And don’t know what to do

Is it right or is it wrong?

You reason – and try to work it out

You see it for a moment

But you’re mostly filled with doubt

You see the world’s abnormality 

When weighing this with that

Think you’ve found the answer

But it turns out – tit for tat

Faith in The One True God eludes –

God is a moving target

Like a doubting man called Thomas

Faith? You don’t know where to park it

Faith in this – faith in that

Many advisers – abysmal advice

From pillar to post in your mind

Whilst left to your own device

Now as one whose been there too

Let me say – we all go astray

Until the man Christ Jesus

Is invited in to stay

Spiritual realities

Spiritual realities.

Spiritual reality tells us –

A man can know Christ’s illumination(s)

Like the epistle writer who said:

I will come to visions and revelations…’

                        ***

That was the Noble Paul who did write

Inspired by The Revelator – Jesus the Christ

As the pen strokes across the page

It would take more than this age

Yea eternity will not be enough

To express the inexpressible (it’s tough)

                       ***

Regarding –

Matters of – life – death – or the heart

There’s coming a day

When sheep from goats will be set apart

                       ***

All spiritual blessings in heavenly places

Obtained purely on the calvary basis

No eye nor heart can see or say

The hereafter things all on display

                      ***

Falling at His feet – best place to go

As He enters your heart

To sanctify and set apart

Waiting at His feet –

Have you chosen the better part?

Sought crowns

Sought crowns

People

Exchanging words

Grimacing

Pointing it all out

Nodding –

Shaking heads in doubt

‘No’ you say – ‘No’ I say too

People with voices

Mincing words – when

No words to mince –

A mince-steak sandwich

Up and running now

With a bucket of ice

Covered twice

All over: that craze

As they win the title

Moving to the next dance

Shiver-me-timbers

As the goal goes in

Celebrating cowboys

Who – out-of-their-skin – to win

On that horse – that stallion

Champ afterwards (with scallions)

Now as we observe this world

– We spin around

Now as we duck behind

The screen – not seen

We stop for a breath

In this busy – busy-ness

Living is the business

Trying hard to impress

Give it up – give it up

For them all…

Triers try – so try

In your sport

And wonder why

The competitive urge

Gets a hold of all who emerge

Winners –

Living to win another day

Living to have

Their competitive say

Failing leads to remorse

All Par for the course

But what is that

That keeps them coming back

Living to fight another day

For a corruptible crown

That will fade away?

Poet’s (Lament?)

POET’S (Lament?)

Ferret out my best poems

And put them on display

I’ll write some more tomorrow

Or maybe the next day

Choose the ones you want to hear

And I will recite them to your listening ear

But remember – live this moment now

For some day I will disappear

And you will forget that I was ever here

Financial schemers

Smugglers Watchman – watercolour by Ken Riddles

FINANCIAL SCHEMERS

I’m going to write a poem today

About those who would say:

“There’s no point in writing poems”

“It’s a distraction and no money in it anyway”

                          ***

Who are ‘they’ you might ask…?

Well – ‘they’ are obsessed with their task

Of money making…

Which sometimes includes illness-faking

                         ***

Cooking up lies –

With conspiracy ‘thought-baking’

You have come across such?

Whose heart is in the money

Mercenary in the extreme

They are not what they seem

                         ***

Pseudo-sick-days off work

Making extra dough

With their latest dodgy scheme

Well – as I say – you know the type I mean

                        ***

One track mind – money all the time

Cajoling you to part with your money

Slabbering out their deceit

Words of bitter honey

                       ***

Their anger may arise

If their scheming you can’t abide

Going off in huffs –

When their bullying you deride

How hard it is for a rich man schemer

Drop the ‘beautiful’ from the dreamer

                      ***

Uncertain riches can pierce you through

With many sorrows

‘Take no thought’ we are told

‘For tomorrow…’

                     ***

We know it’s not the money at fault

It’s the way it can totally steal your heart

Rhyme for life

RHYME FOR LIFE

We must not assume doom and gloom

Try to look on the bright side

Or

we could all run and hide(?)

                   ***

Is it better to abide –

and float with the tide?

                   ***

After all is said and done

The world is spiralling –

it’s on the run

But you – but me – but we

Are all in the boat together

                   ***

Each with his/her idea

Of how to cope with the weather

And it’s superfluous to remark

You are all stunned at this lark

                   ***

This lark called life –

As you know only too well –

So full of demonstrable strife

                  ***

Of google-eyed commuters

And unhinged looters

And addicted and afflicted

And sirens blasting intermittently

Persistently –

Old and young like birds

At food banks

Pecking orders – selfish greed

Void of the compassion we need

                 ***

And as this rhyme unwinds

Set the dial again

And face your new day – the next day

Look for the rhyme in life that

Helps you cope with the strife

                 ***

Your daily routine can change

If your heartbeat gets in line

With the creator of the universe

The One who is out of sight –

                 ***

‘Cause many don’t look

Don’t see what’s right –

neither perceive

                 ***

But life with harmony is

His offered gift

To all who will believe

Why put ’em in dramas?

WHY PUT THEM IN DRAMAS?

So for today

What I will say

Anyway

Is

Progression

Must be made

We must advance

At a glance

I would say

Very little progress

Is being made

Since the last decade

Things have changed a lot

But haven’t changed at all

Depending on which end of

The telescope you use

There is the skeptic

And the realist

And the pessimist

And the optimist…?

– he seems to get drowned-out

People love the negative

And honour it most

Every crime and act of violence

is cause for some kinda gloat

Otherwise why put them in dramas

Over and over and over and over….?

Like some kinda rote… 

Non

Non

A confusing dialogue between three letters. (Interspersed with truth).

A – “So you are Non Christian.

Well – hello Non how’s it going?”

B – “What kind of Christian is that?”

[Interruption…]

C – “Non is gone

He was here a moment ago, but has fled

He doesn’t like being called Non”.

A – “Non gone… has he become a follower of Christ then?”

C – “Don’t know – maybe so?”

B – “Or is Non a special category Christian?”

C – “No – he is an event”

A – “A Non event then?”

C – “Yes a Non believer”

A – “Well at least he’s a believer”

B – “So is the devil”

C – “Is the devil a Non believer?”

A – “No he is a Non-event

To all who put their trust in Christ”

To go or not to go…?

To go or not to go…?

(Conversation of an un-churched man)

You cannot get me to do that

Over and over you have tried

I will not go

I have no interest

But still you try

                ***

“Give me a break” I often say

“But this is important” I hear you sigh

                ***

You and your religious tone

Pease stop – it’s such a drone

Still I suppose I will go

Just once – I mean

If it means getting you to stop

Your incessant monologue

                ***

So off we went –

Church isn’t as bad as I thought

The bench though was hard

And the preacher long…

…winded I mean

Still the after-lunch was fine

                ***

But I won’t be passing this way again

So no more monologue please

I want to make that plain

                ***

Well – maybe this time next year

I will return…

How’s that for a compromise?

Why do you have a look of surprise?

Do you consider me some kind of heathen?

               ***

I’ll tell you better than that

I will go again at the drop of a hat…

What to do?

WHAT TO DO?

So what’s the next thing?

On to the next action – duty-bound

                     ***

To do with finance – something earned?

Or is it the pick-up

From the ‘school run’?

Or DIY for door-hanging-off?

Cutting the grass – ‘what again?’

                     ***

Laughter – a shared joke

Please don’t share it again

It soaks – sorry sucks

                     ***

Is it – sit and contemplate?

Hardly – as navels are under cover

                     ***

Make the dinner for a change?

That’s strange – the sarcastic ‘for a change’ I mean

As you have culinar-(ised) the most

                     ***

It’s part of your duty-bound expanse

Of deeds galore and rare deeds more

                     ***

Your life – our lives – his/her life too

What’s it made up of?

(Hmm…back to questions I see)

                     ***

What is it good to do

Under the sun?

                     ***

Search and find

That’s fine…

                     ***

To try a new approach…

Routines can soak – I mean suck

                     ***

Still – breath-in – here we go

Tackle that task with fresh resolve

What task? –

you may ask

…in a nutshell

GOOD NEWS in a NUTSHELL

You want to be a good person

Without coercion

You summon up all resolve

All your senses you involve

The Law has caught you

With ‘you shall not…’ – but you do

Your will is imprisoned

Let it be understood

With the perfection-failure rule

You feel like a fool

Your daily disappointment

Is the fly in the ointment

Turn instead to the Master’s hand

Are you part of His disciple-band?

Well – ask for help – seek it now

The life of Christ – before Him bow

You will find Him best at keeping His law

Your heart to Him He will draw

And while you gaze at His beauty in awe

Guess what? – You have kept the law

Easter and always

Easter and always

You tell me ‘it’s that time of year again’

As in the example of a Christmas previous to

You tell me ‘make an effort to attend church’

And remember Christ the whole day through

The term easter – placed on it all –

About The Christ who died to save us from the fall

You tell me to ‘approach in reverent awe’

These days of lent when the Saviour we saw

Manifest in the flesh – believed on in the world

Received up to glory – more than just

The old old story

But my response as I celebrate too

Is – it is more to me than a time of year

Rather it’s a daily occurrence

That I should appropriate and appreciate

He is my life – in Him I must remain

Until the One who came

Comes again

So easter everyday

in remembrance of Him

Resurrection Sunday His Life within