Vignettes of people on the edge of despair
These are the thousand statistics outside the news printed on a page
being in and out of fashion again and again
though an occasional by-line will speak well of these friends
Death arrives as soon as life is met
Folks drag butt through the rubble of hope
as one house burns midst choking smoke
A stray shot has blown some Black away
a young punk designed for the early grave
his nick-name remembered as a memento soon forgot
The lawns display the plastic arts of our time
McDonald cups lounge against a fence
decorating the grass along with Wendy's and such
No pink flamingos in the cluttered fields
but discarded tires sculpted in piles
along pathways a thousand feet have dug
Some with brown-bags lean against store facades
sometimes drunk steadily talking to someone
squatting in bare-buildings where grass and roaches roam
Store-front churches are monuments to decay
saving the saved holed-up within walls of bricks and shouts
praying for the damned while cursing the lost
the neighborhood's in despair but its spirit isn't crushed
partying and smoking and watching their butts
laughing midst tears seeping through their boasts
*Reflections of Alan Jones:
-Politicians, religious leaders and teachers know of our longing to remain infantile. It takes a spiritually mature person to enter the Kingdom of God as a little child. We prefer to remain childish and have someone tell us what to believe.
-...no one would chose to follow a hard path if an easier one were available. It seems to be a maxim of the spiritual life that on one undergoes spiritual or psychological growth and change willingly. We are either dragged into it kicking and screaming or circumstances force us into the next scene of the human comedy. Ironically, the institutional Church is often as obstacle to spiritual growth. As we have seen, it has something of an investment in keeping its members in an infantile state.
-The first imperative is, Look! Looking means a contemplative willingness to see what is there in front of us without prematurely interpreting what we see. The desert tradition claims that if we look long and accurately enough, the tears will begin to flow. Thus the second imperative is, Weep!" The fruit of honest contemplation is "the gift of tears"; and the sure sign that our attentiveness has been focused and honest and the tears cleansing is joy. Joy is the fruit of desert patience. Thus the third imperative , Live!
