Tears of Blood...................a 9/11 poem

I closed my eyes,

When I opened them

I couldn't close them again.

How could I?

Is humanity dead?

Is peace dead?

Is violence the way?

Lord, have pity on us.

We have let you down.

We have made you cry.

Fire, smoke everywhere.

What did they get?

Nothing but innocent lives

and tears of blood.


Bikki Gautam of Nepal

JOEL 2:12-18

12 'But now -- declares Yahweh- come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.'

13 Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster.

14 Who knows if he will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a libation to be presented to Yahweh your God?

15 Blow the ram's-horn in Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,

16 call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower!

17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and altar, saying, 'Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say, "Where is their God?" '

18 Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yahweh took pity on his people.

early in the morning I cry to you.

O God,

early in the morning I cry to you.

.Help me to pray,

and to concentrate .my thoughts on you:

I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,

 But with you there is light;

I am lonely, but you do not leave me;

I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;

I am restless, but with you there is peace.

In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,

'but you know the way for me ...

Restore me to liberty,

And enable me so to live now

that I may answer before you and before me,

Lord, whatever this day may bring,

Your name be praised.

Amen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 - 1945)

- Isaiah 11:6-9

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox ... They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

- Isaiah 11:6-9

Oh, turn me, mold me, mellow me for use!

Oh, turn me, mold me, mellow me for use!


Pervade my being with Thy vital force,

That this else inexpressive life of mine

May become eloquent and full of power,

Impregnated with life and strength divine....

I cannot raise the dead, nor from this soil

'Pluck precious dust, nor bid the sleepers wake,

Nor still the storm, nor bend the lightning back,

Nor muffle up the thunder,

Nor bind the Evil One, nor bid the chain

Fall from creation's long-enfettered-limbs;

But I can live a life that tells on other lives, and makes

This world less full of evil and of pain-

A life, which like a pebble dropped at sea,

Sends its wide circles to a hundred shores.

Let such be mine! Creator of true life!

Thyself the life Thou givest, give Thyself,

That Thou mayst dwell in me, and I in Thee.

Amen.

Horatius Bonar n808 - 1887)

Your Law, 0 Lord,

Your Law, 0 Lord,


written on men's hearts,

inscribed and learned

by multitudes of men,

seeping through a thousand crevices

into the remote corners

of our world___

Your Law has reared

not only the huge symmetries of justice,

those marred majesties,

but even these little

complexities of discipline

that make the grit of life

less grinding,

the collision of will on will

less violent:

yellow lines on roads,

meters on the curb,

patrol boys at crossings,

lights that guide us with bright control

or blinking warn us in our hastiness.

.Teach us, 0 Lord,

to see in them a refraction from flashing Sinai,

to see Your moving finger in their work,

to give them our 'ready and quick assent,

to delight in them

as men made new

in Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Through Him we pray.

Amen.

Martin H. Franzmann (1907 - 1976)

NIGHT PRAYER

Tired now, I go to rest,


Jesus, Savior, ever blest,

In Thy name I close mine eyes;

Watch Thou by me till I rise.

Thou my best and kindest friend

Thou wilt love me-till the end!

Let me love Thee more and more,

Always better than before.

Amen.

J. K. Wilhelm Loehe (1808 - 1872)