{"id":3194,"date":"2019-09-20T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T04:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3194"},"modified":"2019-09-20T14:22:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T18:22:32","slug":"sept-20-2019-a-prophet-a-pope-a-poet-three-voices-in-this-time-of-tension-fear-and-anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/09\/20\/sept-20-2019-a-prophet-a-pope-a-poet-three-voices-in-this-time-of-tension-fear-and-anger\/","title":{"rendered":"Sept 20, 2019 a prophet a pope a poet — three voices in this time of tension fear and anger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, \u00a0September 20, 2019 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you remove from your midst oppression,
\nfalse accusation and malicious speech\u201d . . . Isaiah 58<\/p>\n

Pre-note: today\u2019s post is longer than ordinary, and quotes 3 authors, the prophet Isaiah, Pope Francis, and the Muslim poet Warsan Shire. I think you will find them worth the time they require.<\/p>\n

Weekend blessings from Pine Ridge,<\/p>\n

John st sj<\/p>\n

***** \u00a0 \u00a0******** \u00a0 \u00a0********<\/p>\n

When I first encountered these three texts, they seemed at first glance somewhat\u00a0unrelated. The Warsan Shire poem, \u201cHome,\u201d was new to me, sent by a friend in our English Department. The second is familiar, Isaiah\u2019s eloquent prophecy from Chapter 58. \u00a0 \u201cUnrelated\u201d?\u00a0 What was I thinking?\u00a0 Unrelated only on the surface.\u00a0 The tensions roiling the world \u00a0– – \u00a0fear of, and anger at, \u00a0the millions of women, men and child\u00a0immigrants on the roads of the world today, \u00a0so like the little family of Mary, Joseph, and their child Jesus, \u00a0torn from their sleep to flee in terror from soldiers trying to find and kill them – – \u00a0fear and anger about \u201cthe stranger\u201d confronts every reader of the \u201cWork day in a Hard Time\u201d poetry list.\u00a0 Our fear wears on us all. It can remind us that violence toward immigrants has erupted in this country before, (e.g. 1844, 1877, 1920-24). Such troubles aren\u2019t limited to the 2+ centuries of the U.S. either.\u00a0 Isaiah addressed them centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Text # 1: Isaiah 58:7-10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus says the LORD:
\nShare your bread with the hungry,
\nshelter the oppressed and the homeless;
\nclothe the naked when you see them,
\nand do not turn your back on your own.
\nThen your light shall break forth like the dawn,
\nand your wound shall quickly be healed;
\nyour vindication shall go before you,
\nand the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
\nThen you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
\nyou shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
\nIf you remove from your midst
\noppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
\nif you bestow your bread on the hungry
\nand satisfy the afflicted;
\nthen light shall rise for you in the darkness,
\nand the gloom shall become for you like midday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text # 2: Pope Francis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, 2013, for his first trip as Pope, Francis chose the tiny island of Lampedusa, just off Sicily, a place home to the dangers and deaths of immigrants trying to enter Europe. That day Francis spoke to the whole world to \u201creawaken our consciences.\u201d \u00a0 Here is a short clip. \u00a0 \u201cImmigrants who died at sea, from a boat that, instead of being a way of hope was a way of death. . . \u00a0 I felt that I ought to come here today to pray, to make a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken our consciences so that what happened would not be repeated. Not repeated, please!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text # 3: \u2013 Warsan Shire,\u00a0<\/strong>
\n<\/u><\/strong>This Warsan Shire poem \u00a0reminds me of Isaiah 58.\u00a0 As always, it\u2019s best to read the poet out loud, with pauses.\u00a0 However, I find it a lot harder than with most Work Day posts, to read these next words out loud.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u00a0\u201cHome\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

no one leaves home
\nhome is the mouth of a shark<\/p>\n

you only run for the border
\nwhen you see the whole city running as well<\/p>\n

your neighbors running faster than you
\nbreath bloody in their throats
\nthe boy you went to school with
\nwho kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
\nis holding a gun bigger than his body
\nyou only leave home
\nwhen home won\u2019t let you stay.<\/p>\n

no one leaves home unless home chases you
\nfire under feet
\nhot blood in your belly
\nit\u2019s not something you ever thought of doing
\nuntil the blade burnt threats into
\nyour neck
\nand even then you carried the anthem under
\nyour breath
\nonly tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
\nsobbing as each mouthful of paper
\nmade it clear that you wouldn\u2019t be going back.<\/p>\n

you have to understand,<\/p>\n

that no one puts their children in a boat
\nunless the water is safer than the land
\nno one burns their palms
\nunder trains
\nbeneath carriages
\nno one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
\nfeeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
\nmeans something more than journey.
\nno one crawls under fences
\nno one wants to be beaten
\npitied<\/p>\n

one chooses refugee camps
\nor strip searches where your
\nbody is left aching
\nor prison,
\nbecause prison is safer
\nthan a city of fire
\nand one prison guard
\nin the night
\nis better than a truckload
\nof men who look like your father
\nno one could take it
\nno one could stomach it
\nno one skin would be tough enough<\/p>\n

the
\ngo home blacks
\nrefugees
\ndirty immigrants
\nasylum seekers
\nsucking our country dry
\nniggers with their hands out
\nthey smell strange
\nsavage
\nmessed up their country and now they want
\nto mess ours up
\nhow do the words
\nthe dirty looks
\nroll off your backs
\nmaybe because the blow is softer
\nthan a limb torn off<\/p>\n

or the words are more tender
\nthan fourteen men between
\nyour legs
\nor the insults are easier
\nto swallow
\nthan rubble
\nthan bone
\nthan your child body
\nin pieces.
\ni want to go home,
\nbut home is the mouth of a shark
\nhome is the barrel of the gun
\nand no one would leave home
\nunless home chased you to the shore
\nunless home told you
\nto quicken your legs
\nleave your clothes behind
\ncrawl through the desert
\nwade through the oceans
\ndrown
\nsave
\nbe hunger
\nbeg
\nforget pride
\nyour survival is more important<\/p>\n

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
\nsaying-
\nleave,
\nrun away from me now
\ni dont know what i\u2019ve become
\nbut i know that anywhere
\nis safer than here<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Warsan Shire<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Somali<\/a>:\u00a0Warsan Shire<\/em>,\u00a0Arabic<\/a>:\u00a0\u0648\u0631\u0633\u0627\u0646\u00a0\u0634\u0631\u0649\u200e\u200e, born 1 August 1988)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, \u00a0September 20, 2019 \u00a0 \u201cIf you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech\u201d . . . Isaiah 58 Pre-note: today\u2019s post is longer than ordinary, and quotes 3 authors, the prophet Isaiah, Pope Francis, and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}