What do you gain by winning the world but destroying yourself?
-Mark 8:36



gargoyles watch the corners of our lives

1. Home-front

vigilantes guard the empty streets
with guns in hand, poised to shoot the shadowed ghosts

creative initiators of  group think

their "secret" codes summon comrades to arms

their eyes watching strangers passing by

insiders pass inspection by winking their eyes
(they're the ones with guns fixed at your head)

big brother peeps o'er our shoulders without shame

eyes staring at us as a warning, trained

to pounce on words deemed illegal and claimed

ready to drag enemies to the cages of the condemned

it's freedom that must be preserved at the price of condemnation
freedoms founded on judaic-christian imperialistic codes
laws, once decent, now packaged to exclude
with selective suppression to preserve the status quo

2. War-front

bring home the bodies aerated by bullets
informing the nation of their noble cause
they died to break the systems of demonic dominance
confronting the enemy to view life through their eyes
unaccepted were their efforts at promoting equality
they sealed their efforts by firing their guns

3. Church-front

upon cathedral corners sit gargoyles sporting smiles
grotesque and comical, inviting a quest

why do the nations rage, sending their young to war

while the initiators of conflict rest blanketed in their beds?

though wars are won one dead soldier at a time
the knights are guarded by gargoyles of stone
their names erased as we trod upon their graves



*The New Ancients

-For nothing worthy proving can be proven
nor yet disproven; wherefore thou be wise
cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt
and cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith
                                   Alfred, Lord Tennyson

-There are no rules. This is what gets me in trouble with certain members of the Christian community. I really don't think it's about rules.
                                                Bruce Cockburn

-I don't want a God who is a parent who might kick me out of the house.
                                                                                           Lynn Johnston

-I'm weak on my own.  I think everybody is.
                                            Susan Aglukark

-The gospel is about trying to incarnate a love which is both radical and not stupid.
                                                                                                             Ann Copeland

-I'm not here just to while away the time.  And it's a waste of time to just chase money.
                                                                                                              Tony Hillerman

-What is it that makes a human being go?  It is energy. And the physicists tells us that energy never vanishes.  So when the body is worn out and dies, where does the energy go?
                                                                                              Robertson Davies