Monday, October 01, 2007

Monday Poetry Train #19




Why Purple Silence Answers Urgent Plight

by Joy Renee

Baby cries, hand flies--
Cheek a-welt with purple palm,
Baby squeals, hand seals--
Throat aflame with silenced scream.
Baby wails, hand flails--
Butt a-throb with answered pleas.
Adult kneels, hands steepled--
Heart a-freight with urgent needs.
Voices sing, claps ring--
Church aglow with plighted praise.
“Our Father hear our sighs!
As we hear our children’s cries!”

###############

I wrote this in the early 90s during the time I began to question the doctrines I was raised under because of the treatment of children dictated or justified by them.

8 tell me a story:

Susan Helene Gottfried 10/01/2007 12:51 PM  

Yowie. That's tough stuff.

#2 pushed a friend down our front steps last week. I gave her a swat, not even a spank (I'm the world's wussiest spanker) and my neighbor, the girl's mom, was horrified. Sometimes, you gotta get their attention.

But to hurt a child? Unthinkable. Which is why I'm the world's wussiest spanker.

Lisa Andel 10/01/2007 2:13 PM  

Man that sucks. How strong you are for living through it, recognizing it for what it was, and walking away from it.

Amy Ruttan 10/01/2007 3:56 PM  

Beating children ... makes me sick to my stomach. Powerful poem.

Julia Phillips Smith 10/01/2007 6:02 PM  

“Our Father hear our sighs!
As we hear our children’s cries!”

Exactly.

It always makes me shake my head when evangelicals fixate on the Old Testament - eye-for-an-eye - and miss the Biggest Message of All: Turn the other cheek. 2000 years later and people still don't get it. Especially the evangelicals.

This poem jabs with very black humour - and works perfectly.

Jill 10/01/2007 7:25 PM  

This poem is so sad...But then, it is full of truth. I work a lot with kids, something I wonder if some are abuse because of the way they act...
Thanks for sharing...

Anonymous,  10/02/2007 4:18 AM  

But a child does not how it is acting when so young. What is our excuse?


I work for girls abused by their near and dear ones including their own fathers.

Rhian 10/02/2007 4:54 AM  

oh yeah Joy - i'm with you on this one. The hypocrisy and contradictions woven into and between the words which still resonate with ritual constraints.
Very very well done!

Julia Phillips Smith 10/02/2007 7:21 AM  

Joy Renee, I just posted my Nice Matters Awards - a month-and-a-half later, I realize. You see how time zooms by for me. I wanted to thank you again for passing it along to me. Hugs to you!

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