Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dona Nobis Pacem

Grant us Peace.

In the spirit of the day I offer up a poem I wrote forty-two years ago, because despite being "adolescent" in tone, it is just as relevant today:
Man has built to rival God's mountains,
spires of concrete and steel,
reaching higher, higher toward the sky
man has built to out fly the birds,
always reaching upward toward the stars.

But below the skies the earth is troubled,
man against man, brother against brother,
for under God all are brothers.

Need you fight one another?
There is so much to be had--
Let us fight ignorance, poverty, disease,
not one another.

O my brothers stop your useless strife.
Shoulder to shoulder, heart with heart,
let us fight together
for the world that could be.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

First of all...kudos to being able to hold onto something for forty-two years! I have problems finding things from one week ago. :)

Secondly, this piece is beautiful and still true to this day. I guess when it comes down to it - things have only started to change - atleast we can hope that they have.

sgreerpitt said...

Poetry is the only thing that I've manage to hang onto in that way. I have every poem I've ever written since the first one in 1965.