Sleeping on the Job

[saw]

Wake up God !
You must have dosed off.
How could you let this horrific thing happen?
Is this the way you reward people who pray ?
Is this the way you show your appreciation
to young women with hearts of pure gold ?

You're a Phony,
like Falwell and Robertson,
you're nothing but a TV evangelist in the sky !
They get to close their eyes real tight, pretend
to love you, and ask for money,
and you allow a monster to snuff out
a lovely creature who spread peace and love
everywhere she walked.

You're pathetic.....a Liar.....you're Bullshit !
And I the tormented uncle, the atheist rogue
am left behind to try and make contact with you ?
And I, The Denouncer of your two-bit freak shows
am left here to grieve. For what ?
Tell me your silly plan. Come on father of Jesus,
Speak up ! Give me a sign...that's right, I'm calling
you on your shit.

Tell me why Robert Tilton, who visited revival tents
as a college gag, who faked his limp, and mocked
the devout by throwing away his cane and walking
out, healed by your awesome grace is still making
a mockery of his devotion to you, yea answer that,
....a fucking fraternity prank turned into a multi-million
dollar business.

And You, Omnipotent Con Man sit and watch,
her killer free to kill again,
And You, and your mysterious fucking ways.
Come on, here's your chance to win me over,
show me some fucking light.

Perhaps my precious niece was a visionary
when fifteen years ago she wrote these words;

"Giving and taking are the impish little thieves,
grabbing their sought for gifts
and replacing them with empty dreams."

Ahead of her time ?
Ahead of you ?
And as for me, my spirituality is a fortress,
and my soul, a defiant soldier.

[SmileGRL]

steve...i am sorry for your loss. anger is part of the grieving process and it's very healthy to get it all out. i applaud this poem of yours for that reason

now, about your questions to god...unfortunately you won't get the answers you're looking for or at least not when and how and where you expect them. and you'll have to make your own peace with it. this is my take on god and life on earth and why the hell are things so fucked up. we are nOt puppets on strings moved around by god to fit a whim. god does not control what happens on earth, nor does god judge it now, or later. we are all just little parts of god. i like to say we are god's eyes, ears, hearts, arms, etc..living life for god. we are here on earth to experience life in all its glory, beautiful and ugly and everything in between depending on the choices we make. if you believe in reincarnation you could argue that we choose our own paths before we "start over" and then we make the little choices as we go along. i don't know all the answers and a lot of things don't make sense to me, but i quit blaming god a long time ago. we are god. we are the ones that are making all this happen, be it allowing a fool to get rich with a prank, the choice a killer or a rapest makes to do what they do, the way we send negative energy into the universe creating more pain, or if we try to influence the universe in a positive way by what we do and think and say. one thing is for sure it's all a very complicated web and we are spinning parts of that web every second of every day.

[Arcadia]

I like the job/Job thing... keep me thinking!

[constantine]

conan worships a god called crom who doesn't care or meddle in the affairs of man - now there's a god of my understanding. there's no rhyme or reason. don't get me wrong, steve; to me, a god that would allow two infants joined at the head is one i would have issues with - a god i would strive to topple. it's either crom or nothing - either way it's the same to me.

[hester_prynne]

wow! FANTASTIC WRITE...So glad I got to this one before my library time ran out saw.....this is...words don't cut it...
H

[Lightning Rod]

saw,

You have managed to treat a cliche subject with some alacrity

I hate to tackle subjects like this

the only way to do it is with 'angle'

don't attack the subject literally

do it with angle and story

my praise for your work wouldn't mean anything
unless I give you my true opinion
not one of my favs

[mtmynd]

hi, steve... suffering is a bitch.

when i read/hear things like this and the god-blame, i know those that do the blaming are the one's that don't have a complete grasp of this god-thing. it's not the person's fault, by any means, but rather all the positive praising for this god/allah/dios we have become so conditioned in believing that when something terrible happens to one of our kind, be it family, friend or even countrymen or world citizens that died from a natural disaster... it's somehow a god's fault. but truly we created our gods and it is we that endowed them with these god qualities that even the Absolute Truth could never please our desires for how gods should be and how they should act.

it is our own suffering at times like these that we desire so much to understand these mysteries, but our desires inhibit Truth from revealing itself until suffering is extinguished.

peace, amigo.

[Odette]

bravo

[Doreen Peri]

I don't believe in him any more is because he doesn't believe in me. And who could blame him? We had an extensive email exchange once. The entire story became clear.

A fine poem here. An honest rant.

Oh and btw... about our other discussion.... Fuck stanza breaks. God doesn't care about them either.

[emel.scott]

Let me first say that nobody likes to see this type of loss, even those of us who don't see death so much as an end but rather as a transition.
With that in mind...

I have posted and read
many poems about god
and usually those about faith
get one quarter of the views
and comments as the ones
bashing god. So I'll differ
to the popular vote, and say
intelligent people need proof
that god exists before they
will give it up.

I personally did suffer
from the same necessity but
have proven enough to
myself over the years
to be certain of a consciousness
greater then my own potential.

The key for me was the
realization that this existence
cannot be proven to you,
rather, you must prove it
to yourself. Call it a spiritual science
if you will.

One thing I know for sure.
Whatever is happening
in the universe, it's happening
to all of us and the only difference
is our individual points of view.

I see spirituality much the same
as a car crash. When reading
eye witness accounts, it sounds
like each person sees an entirely
different accident. In fact,
everyone sees the same thing,
only from a different perspective.

It doesn't much matter if I'm right
or you’re right. In fact, lets assume
you’re right and god’s a dick. Let’s
wait and see how things turn out.
I’m betting it’s the same result.
only each of us we'll probably
interpret it differently.

[saw]

thanx so much to everyone that responded to this..I won't address each of you personally cause it would be overwhelming, but I was most interested in your comments.

Let me just try to express how this poem came to me.
My niece Keri was murdered in 1995 in Baltimore on my son's first birthday. It was obviously devastating to our family, and in fact I couldn't write the poem for 10 years. But in 2005, one late evening,
this poem spilled out verbatim in a stream of anger that had been
seething below the surface. As you can tell the poem is directed
to my niece's god, which you gathered was the Christian god.
I suppose I directed it to Him because she cared about him....he is not
my god, never was, never will be.....after 2 years of Catholic school,
I knew, that wasn't going to work for me.....My anger that night
was inflamed by skimming by a televangelist show while channel
surfing.....and from there, I was off to the races......I had a copy
of Keri's poem in a frame in the book case staring at me, as well...
Her poem just blew me away.....she wrote that when she was 14.
She died when she was 22.....she was enrolled at American
University with a double major in journalism and literature.....
thanks again for the terrific feedback......much appreciated.....