Hail the quintessential beast whose boredom reigns supreme!
Heal a disenchanted child
Whose suffering, seemly vain,
Makes a witness every man, to testify, condemn,
To tear apart the mind of him who spurns on every whim.
Here’s to death without Christ’s life, a pit of mortal doom!
Interrupted by God’s hand,
Each flower dies to bloom,
And blooms to die the harrowed death of petals in the wind;
Their fragrance fails make Him deny that every one has sinned!
Raise a fist for Dimmesdale, for him and Hester Prynne!
Scarlet letter, let him go,
Be silenced by his sin;
As pierced the Son of Man was raised, an artifact of truth,
So burned and charred by ashes foul are His adopted youth.
Krystallnacht inside the church, hymns golden sing and leave—
Thoughts of Nehemiah’s days
Forever scream, “Bereave!”
With deepest haste revival comes, announced with every trump,
And makes away with perfect stealth, left in its place a stump.
Stille Nacht, let all fare well, night’s last adventful dream!
One wasted year, one day to cheer,
One day to laugh and sing—
The Light yet shine, the anthem sound, for God is love and peace:
O, bride of Christ, return to Him; let faithfulness increase!
In the television show The Simpsons "Bart" is shown writing a sentence on the chalkboard as punishment for something wrong that he did in school. "The Pledge of Allegiance does not end with Hail Satan" is one of them. I thought the title would be fitting for this poem, considering its subject matter - a Christian's disobedience to God.
Will I ever find the strength to forgive her for this?
She left without giving a hint of a kiss,
She left without a sweet goodbye,
She left without a smile,
She crushed and bled my heart out.
Blonde hair coloring and sunflower eyes of gold
I felt for her and made a concession of love
And strawberry cheesecake indicted my heart
I wish I could have kept her, God unwilling —
But the Lord is such a jealous Lover!
She radiates false innocence, this girl I came
To know — her smile tore down an inner fence
And stole my thoughts away; I fell in love,
So constantly of her I was thinking
But slowly I discovered where I’d erred.
She’s got a lovely picture and a cute sexy smile
And when she looks at me, I go into denial
That anyone as beautiful as her could
Do anything but cause me to become obsessed;
Still my true feelings I had not confessed.
I wonder if she remembers I almost proposed
To her — not really, but when I looked into her
Aquamarine eyes I found her hard to resist —
She was crazy, still is, hyper and free;
Always she seemed to be flirting with me.
I don’t feel that I am ready to open my heart
She said to me, and once she did
It was too late — one date, and four kisses,
That was all the love she could impart;
From her embrace I couldn’t wait to part!
I still believe she’s the most beautiful of all
Brown eyes, brown hair, a lovely form,
Ingredients to fall — and fall I did, each time
I gazed upon her pretty face, and saw
Her gentle, graceful smile — I was crushed, thrice.
She thought me chivalrous, a little too polite,
I drove her crazy one clear December night,
Kissing deeply, passionately — tragically,
Something was wrong, and the next night I
Made the call, and bid to her farewell forever.
I worshipped her whole being, this girl I knew
Every time I thought of her, willfully
My heart flew into a frenzy of emotional poetry;
She aroused my mind with her angelic eyes,
Fantastically beautiful — so easy to lionize.
She was my Valentine, I asked her to be mine,
And she purred and smiled, my love defiled
I wished she could be mine — I thought of her
And dreamed of her and her brown eyes;
Surely she pitied me for all my valiant tries.
A southbound flight one early spring night,
Charlotte spun her web and made it tight;
Her locking black hair and skin so fair —
We sat together, watching the night pass by
As the lights met the stars in the limitless sky.
Her gorgeous red hair sparked something in me
As early as first grade she compelled me
And though I eventually lost her to the wind
I’ll be meeting her at the door,
Biting on the zipper of my green-blue jacket.
This poem obviously reflects my yearning for the innocence of my first love, or crush, to be more accurate. It just seemed that it would be best to tell the story of my so-called love life in reverse, because if I were to tell it from past to present, it would cause everyone who read it to suffer grief. Prayer is appreciated, but you should know that I gave up on praying for "that special girl" a long, long time ago. (Should it give you a hint, I'm talking about eleven different girls in this poem.)
Because of the blood of the Christ we have pierced
This is the time, this the chance to relate —
He, our Lord, who was pierced for our sake
He, our Lord, who was sent to face hate — is in the mind
Of everyone who saw, heard, and felt His pain
Who cringed because His strength sustained that day
For none on earth could near repay
The debt owned God — our sins, that day
Were spat upon and took away
And hung upon a cross of shame — the cross of Christ.
And none escapes the thought of Him
Of all who now will enter in and know the life
For us He gave, to take it up, our souls to save.
The title of this poem references the fact that I wrote it after watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Although I am glad I went to see it, I don't want to see it again.
This is one of the most balatantly Calvinist poems I have ever written. I wrote it to someone I knew at the time who had grown out of touch with God because of sin (which could have easily been myself). I meant to remind that person that, because God chose from before the creation of the world to come into our lives, He's in us for the long run.
The world’s half-hearted smile is His effort’s result
Tragic it is that the cursed must revolt.
Darkness surrounds them, for they cannot see
And never shall—the only glory
Which they give to the God of heaven and earth
Will be their confession of why they are
Eternally damned.
The lost have no passion for the lost, is that clear?
Still, those who despise God, who will neither
Follow after Christ nor keep the commandments,
Inside, their hearts will soon weep for their kind—
Death physical, death spiritual, death eternal
Will with finality overcome them,
As it already has—not only are they claimed,
But having no Redeemer, they have no true hope;
Their life is temporary,
If temporary life can even be said to exist!
Their hopes are set on this world and its rewards
Embraced to them, they slowly vanish in them.
This poem may be upsetting to many Christians, but it's meant as a wake-up call. We need to evangelize! We need to do what we were called from out of this world and out of our sins to do.
Should my sins have drawn His attention, my curses
His affection, my lies His faithfulness,
My hate His love, my despair His passion—
My darkness His everlasting light,
My lostness His everlasting life?
Certainly You knew I would fall in love with You
I cannot escape Your Spirit’s effectual calling
I cannot turn back Your overcoming grace
Nor can I comprehend Your unconditional love
I can do nothing against the truth—Jesus Christ,
The Son of God, came from heaven above
To demonstrate His Father’s everlasting love.
I take my encouragement in prayer from You
And I will praise You—I will ascribe
Kingdom, power, and glory unto the Lord
And to testify of my longing—and assurance
That I shall be heard when I pray
I close my eyes and in true thankfulness, I say:
Amen.
Allusions and Scripture references: The last stanza alludes to the answer to the last question in the Westminster Shorter Chatechism, which has been used for over 350 years to teach children basic Biblical doctrine. Scripture references include "Not that I ever deserved to be loved by God / But that He loved me first" (1 John 4:19), and "I can do nothing against the truth" (2 Cor. 13:8).
Just to let you know: When I wrote, "In confession is grace and eternal life," I did not mean to imply that I believe a Christian can "lose his salvation." (See John 10:27-30 for more on this subject.) Confession is agreement with God that our ways are utterly sinful, that He and His authority over us are good, and that we can be in a relationship with Him only because Christ's righteousness has been made to take away our sinfulness. I like to think of confession as renewing my initial repentance. When we make confession to God, we reconnect with our Source of eternal life (John 17:3).
