Consider This

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Wendy Seddon
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Consider This

Post by Wendy Seddon » Tue May 17, 2016 10:33 am

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my personal opinion and beliefs and in no way meant to be offensive to anyone.

Consider This Wendy Seddon © October 2015

Tell me, is your world devoid of empathy and care,
with ignorance and selfishness and chaos everywhere?
Without a thought to how a little seed can sprout and grow,
or how a heart can flutter in a tiny embryo.

And does your independence mean you’re cold to other’s needs,
oblivious to consequence or where your conscience leads?
The wall you’ve built around yourself too high to see above,
or let in light or colour, even tenderness or love.

Or do you even realise the state in which you dwell,
and do you live without a thought of Heaven or of Hell?
Have you become the product of a world where Faith’s devoid,
the love of a creator God has never been deployed?

You may believe you’re strong enough to face all things alone,
no matter what you do with life there’s no need to atone.
You’re told that everything on Earth just happened into place
from supersonic accidents somewhere in deepest space.

Evolution is a miracle, conceived not born of chance,
designed and set upon its course for mankind to advance.
To be entrusted with the care of all the living things,
the things with scales or fur or skin or shell or leaf or wings.

You say that if there was a God and met Him face to face
you’d berate Him for audaciously creating such a place.
A place where children suffer and then die before they live,
a culture which encourages to take and never give.

A place where innocence is lost through cruelty and strife,
where malice breeds profusely and then infiltrates all life.
Where evil seems to dominate and righteousness is spurned,
you wonder why a loving God could be so unconcerned.

You like the safe position of a pessimistic view
where everything’s explainable and nothing puzzles you.
You’re far too smart to be deceived by things you cannot touch,
assign all things miraculous to fantasy and such.

A narrow mind does not condemn your soul to anarchy,
indifference is not a pass to writhe eternally.
Your soul is safe from fire and strife if spiteful thoughts abound
and Hell will not pursue you if intolerance is found.

Consider though a different view and listen to my voice
there is another way to think but still a daring choice -
Consider there’s a vicious war which rages all around,
where evil assaults goodness and there is no common ground.

Where goodness fights encumbered by your lack of partnership
and evil is empowered as you judge with spiteful quip.
The prince of all that’s ugly has so cunningly conceived
a world where he is so ignored and fully disbelieved.

He arms you with indifference so gains the upper hand,
while all the time the battles rage but you don’t take a stand
You do not fight for goodness but you note well its demise,
you’ll not commit to faith and hope but mourn it when it dies.

You hide within your humanness, your intellect resists
the notion of a noble plan, that God even exists.
The beast will reign if you’ve not fought him every way you could,
thus sanctioning his quest to go on thwarting all that’s good

Believe in a combatant God who fights for you with love
who’ll lay his life down just for you when push evolves to shove.
I can’t condone your view of Earth as something to debase
I will not live my life without benevolence or grace.

Take a moment, look around with clear unbiased eyes,
and marvel at the beauty so arrayed beneath the skies.
There’s mercy and there’s grace and hope and beauty, all divine,
while still the war continues on for your sake and for mine.

For God’s sake stand and fight the one who’d strangle decency
instead of blaming some-one whom you just refuse to see.
Wen de Rhymewriter There is nothing mundane about the ordinary.

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David Campbell
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Re: Consider This

Post by David Campbell » Tue May 17, 2016 10:52 am

Beautifully written, Wendy, but we'll have to agree to disagree. A lot of things puzzle me, but I don't find any answers in the same place that you do. But, by way of a more detailed personal response, here's a link to an article of mine from The Age a few years ago: http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/dont-su ... 2bz8w.html

Cheers
David

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Wendy Seddon
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Re: Consider This

Post by Wendy Seddon » Tue May 17, 2016 11:12 am

Thanks David. I love your article - exactly so.

"In this great cosmos of ours, we are mere insects as compared to the boundless miracle about us,
as measured against the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge."
Wen de Rhymewriter There is nothing mundane about the ordinary.

Neville Briggs
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Re: Consider This

Post by Neville Briggs » Tue May 17, 2016 11:17 am

A brave go at a big question Wendy. :)

William Blake famously wrote;
To see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.

Some people claim he was being pantheistic ( God is everything )
I don't think that is what Blake meant.
I think he meant that our ability to relate to the world is limited to a small circle of experience, and the poet's job can't be to make large statements about a "theory of everything" that's beyond us.
I think he meant it is the wonder of poetry to closely observe just a small thing right at our feet or at our fingertips and by the poets crafted words, make that small thing stand for the whole picture.

If you know what I mean.

I hope I am not too annoying. ;)
Hopefully you will persuade your listeners to pause and think. We seem to get bombarded with just slogans and spin these days and I fear that George Orwell's unthinking slavery is becoming a horrible reality.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

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Wendy Seddon
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Re: Consider This

Post by Wendy Seddon » Tue May 17, 2016 11:41 am

I wrote this with my brother in mind who was a long-time ICE user. He used to be a solicitor in the High Court
but lost everything and now at 59 lives with my old Dad, broke and broken, no ability to reason or logic.
In highlighting our different approaches to our responsibilities as humans, I hoped he may pause for thought.
(As you mentioned Nev) He didn't.
Wen de Rhymewriter There is nothing mundane about the ordinary.

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Shelley Hansen
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Re: Consider This

Post by Shelley Hansen » Tue May 17, 2016 4:15 pm

Hi Wendy

When I first read your poem I admired its craftsmanship - then when I read your sad story about your brother, it took on a whole new meaning in the light of your plea to him.

Sadly, too many people fall into the error of believing "no matter what you do with life there's no need to atone", often because they don't have a positive view of the future. Too late they discover how wrong they were. Or in other words ... "what we sow, we reap".

We all differ in our beliefs, but like you (and like William Blake quoted by Nev) I cannot fail to see evidence of Grand Design and purpose in the world around us.

Cheers
Shelley
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Catherine Lee
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Re: Consider This

Post by Catherine Lee » Thu May 19, 2016 12:07 am

I've read this several times over Wendy and I agree with Shelley. You have really written from the heart so I'm only sorry it did not make your brother think as you'd hoped. I've known several people to whom this line would apply to:

you’ll not commit to faith and hope but mourn it when it dies.[/i]

....and also of course, blame the God they say they don't believe in, as in these lines:

Where evil seems to dominate and righteousness is spurned,
you wonder why a loving God could be so unconcerned
.

A thought provoking poem full of hope Wendy.

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alongtimegone
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Re: Consider This

Post by alongtimegone » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:55 pm

A very skilfully written piece Wendy, both as a poem and as a consideration. I very much enjoyed reading it and thinking about its questions.
Wazza

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Wendy Seddon
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Re: Consider This

Post by Wendy Seddon » Sat Jun 25, 2016 8:42 am

Thank you Wazza - I could probably add another 20 stanzas!!
It just kept flowing out of my pen/head.
Wen de Rhymewriter There is nothing mundane about the ordinary.

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Maureen K Clifford
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Re: Consider This

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Sat Jun 25, 2016 10:39 am

Poems written from the heart with passion are so often the best Wendy and your feelings and emotions show through. So sorry to hear about your brother - sadly we can only help those who really want to be helped. We all march to our own drummers. So many questions to which we never seem to have the answers. I too often think the world has become devoid of empathy and care but then realize that the world is made up of individual people and whilst many have, many more of course have not. There is still much beauty and love to be found in the world and its people.
Check out The Scribbly Bark Poets blog site here -
http://scribblybarkpoetry.blogspot.com.au/


I may not always succeed in making a difference, but I will go to my grave knowing I at least tried.

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