Poetry Corner – August 2014

Poetry Corner – August 2014
Image by Jon Skilling via Flickr Creative Commons

Edited by Richard Stone

This month, we have two poems written by John Auer. I met John early in my sojourn in Fresno, in his then-capacity as minister of Sierra Vista Methodist Church, and I was quickly taken by his embracing warmth and his passion for justice. After a several-year relocation, he is back in Fresno. Though now retired, his zeal for preaching the gospel of love is still evident in his poetry.

Immigrationalization

Pentecost, rich immigrational festā€”
Stranger, sojourner, refugee, exileā€”
Everyone coming from somewhere,
Whole of the human-known worldā€”
Who of us alien to One sourcing all?
Babel, so omnilateral, so monolingual,
Pretending to One of the many,
Precluding the Many of one.
Now born-again, wind-fired, unutterably alteredā€”
Each hearing, UN-like, every lost language our own.
How big is my world? My Earth?
How big is my human family?
How complex, how diverse?
How extending/expanding, inviting/including?
Before all, what future I hope for my children?
For theirs? For ours? For seven generations?
Oneā€™s bloodying takeover, anotherā€™s bled makeover,
Ever-fluxing first-faces, emblazoned durations.
We are all browning now.
Beyond every wall, every gate, every bar,
Every lock and gun, what if thereā€™s room?
What if thereā€™s got to be room?
For everyone nowā€”if not at the top,
At least at the table? Encircled, inspiraled?
By all.

Change Me

Where there is selfishness,
Where there is greed, change me;
Where there are undue privilege,
Unfair power, change me;
Where there are ignorance, arrogance,
Within, among authorities, change me;
Where there is indifference toward
The impoverished, the disinherited, change me;
Where there are abused, exploited,
Women, children, change me;
Where boundaries divide and conquer us,
Immigrant and imprisoned,
Occupied and detained, change me;
In other words, where there is sin,
Where I do death, change me, damn me,
change me.

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  • Community Alliance

    The Community Alliance is a monthly newspaper that has been published in Fresno, California, since 1996. The purpose of the newspaper is to help build a progressive movement for social and economic justice.

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