I Would See Jesus (August 28, 2013)

I arrive

About 8:30 a.m.

On August 28

To take up the banner cry…

“We shall all be free”…

And march

Once again

To Lincoln’s Memorial

Looking

Over

The “Reflecting Pool”

In remembrance of

“The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King”

And “The March on Washington”

Of nineteen-hundred and sixty three

When he proclaimed

In his now infamous speech

“I Have A Dream Today” -

When we marched

Hand-in-hand

Along Constitution Avenue

And sang out

Into the sphere…

These truths we hold most dear –

Freedom is our rightful entitlement!

Inequity is unacceptable,

And we will not consent to this unholy predicament.

Justice must and will prevail!

We cannot and will not fail.

For we are marching up the King’s highway

Where soft rains call lightly on the day

Sprinkling cooling baptismal dew

Sweetly anointed

In grace and mercy under clouds gray

With the breeze’s whispers

In the humid air

That yes,

God does indeed care.

Our God Who walks in the midst of the waters

To teach the gospel of brotherly love

Ordained from heaven above.

So as we march this new morning

Under the awning

Of the challenge to change directions

A long time coming

When we shall

Rise up

On wings of eagles

In the blaze of glory

Of that great ole Son-ship story

Told before time began

And is now

Praise our God

At His right hand

So I thank You

Lord God

For sending forth

Your messenger of hope

To speak Your heart

To this day that the Lord has made

And is justly well-laid.

Thank You

Our Abba Father Jehovah-nissi

(The-Lord-Is-My-Banner)/

Our Abba Mother El-Shaddai

(God Almighty)

Thank You

For showing forth

Your Presence

Among us

In the essence

Of the new messengers

Taking the stage

To re-invigorate our hearts and minds,

To continue the fight

For civil and equal rights,

To re-determine the goal foretold

That we ain’ gon’ let nobody turn us around,

That we will stand our higher ground

And be not dismayed

And be not moved

Or any-wise way-laid

We continue the move ahead

On this path to victory bound…

On this blood-paved road

Towards

Fairness,

Rightness,

Legitimacy,

Truth

And all that is

Justice…

In this land of liberty

And the born free

These generations gathered

Around and about

The Memorial Mall

Call

To action

The forces against

Cruelty and intolerance,

Against systemized oppression

And customized repression

We stand at the steps

Of holy ground

With Congressman Louis

And we will

“Put our shoulders against the stubborn gates

Holding the American people back…

These barriers in the hearts of humankind

That form a gulf between us”

And which broadens the lines of hate and distrust

And we will not be moved

We have kept the faith,

We have kept hope alive,

We have gone against the grain,

And our living                                                                               

And dying

Will not be in vain

Because we are a people

Who have fought against blind injustice

In Albany and Birmingham,

Trekked across the muddy roads

From Selma to Montgomery –

Beaten and battered,

Stood against vicious attacks in Chicago

And Detroit,

Plowed the mine fields in Georgia and Mississippi,

Rose and died in Tennessee

To rise again

In Washington, D.C.

And we shall not be moved

We are a tree planted by the waters

Of righteousness!

We shall not be moved

Or disproved

Unto Thee I sing…

Let freedom ring –

Let freedom ring –

And sound out the song

For the soon-to-be-coming King.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory

Of the coming of the Lord!”  MLK

For assuredly,

This is the day of the Lord

And I shall rejoice and be glad in it

Today

This is the day that the Lord has made

And we shall

Over-come

What may

 “For I am persuaded beyond doubt

That neither death nor life,

Nor angels nor principalities,

Nor things impending and threatening

Nor things to come, nor powers,

Nor height nor depth, nor anything else

In all creation will be able to separate us

From the love of God

Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:38-39

9/11/13

Give us this day our daily bread

Give us the sustenance of life-

Giving fuel to ordain the day

To address the needs of life-

Everlasting

To bring-in the day of the Lord

To conclusion

As we seek wisdom, knowledge

And understanding

Of the way of God

Sustain us with Your great grace and mercy

Which endures forever

Forgive continually

And we do thank You Lord

For Your blessed forgiveness

Eradicate un-forgiveness

And hardened hearts in Your beloved community

Of light

Help us

To truly love one another

As You have loved us

Through the sacrifice

Of the Lamb of God

Being Christ Jesus

Hear the words of our hearts

And the meditations of thoughts

For the good of man

To know You full-well

And to come into the place of kingdom life

Give Obama the seeds of peace

The Nobel peace

Bestowed upon him at the beginning of his service

As President of these

United-States

Of America

Give him courage

Forethought

A sound mind

Give him the guidance in spirit

And in the truth of right in Christ

As he seeks You on bended knees

Desiring to do Your perfect will

Please God

Help him to hear the Voice of God

In his innermost ear

Bless us in this great body of Christ

Bring forth Your manifested sons

Into the day dawning

Even now

Says the Spirit of grace and truth

Let Your tender mercies fill our hearts

As the bounty of the sun

Shining on the sea

To shining sea

Amen

I pray

In the name of Who Is

The Father

The Son

And The Holy Spirit,

Praise the Lord God

“In quietness and in trusting confidence

Shall be your strength,”  Isaiah 30:15

Dr. King

He was our king
From the house of King David –
Selected to serve the nation
In this age of revolution,
To break open
The seals of justice
And open up the gates
To let flow
The rivers of abundant life
Into mighty streams of realized dreams

Like Moses –
Chosen to lead the captives out of Egypt
Into a vast wilderness
Stretched out across the sands of
Dry bones
Laid waste
By the fiery furnaces
Of travesty and travail
And many sorts of dread and hell.

Martin Luther -
Prophet And teacher,
Poet and preacher,
Catapulted in a pivotal age
Onto center stage
To be the sacrificial lamb
Of deliverance
With due diligence
In forging ahead
To the promise land
Of “Yes, I can.”

The reverend doctor whose
Instruments of healing
Buttressed those subjected
To painful existences
Full of sorrows and shame
Where throes of despair
Run down
In crushing blows
On the highs and the lows.
To bring hope alive
And well
Voiced from the mountaintop
Where justice reigns supreme
And righteousness is the means.

This man -
Of flesh and blood guts
Brought to bear
The cross
Of crossing over troubled waters
To the other side
Of midnight
Into the morning sunrise
Of the light reflected
On the dust tracks
Of worn feet
Having tread through
The valleys of the abyss of thorned fists.

He was cast in stone -
A breed apart
Even from the chosen few
Birthed out of God’s own heart -
Liken to Jesus
A pilgrim priest
Among the least.
He was branded with the whip
Of racial injustice
Rights rejected,
And dreams deferred.
He was of a people battered and bruised
But willed
To rise from the groans
Of broken spirits
And bent back-bones
To God’s own throne.

God’s man -
In what can sometimes
Be seen as
A godless land
Where lies abound
As truth,
The profane
Disguised under heavy cloaks
Of false piety
And deceptive moralizing
In the blackened doctrine
Of white makes right.

Eloquence and elegance
Flowed from the lips
Of his oratory
Morning glory genius.
To liberate the mind
To platforms
Of grace and mercy
Which endure forever…
Indicative of the
Treasures on earth
Through our Savior’s birth.

He was crowned
Black-faced
Brown-skinned
Fleecy-haired
Colored-born
In the dark cavity
Of slavery
In the cotton fields
Created
By race superiority’s reign,
To exist outside
The boundaries of God’s begotten Son
In Whom the victory is won.

He came Championing the banner -
“Courage to love”
“Peaceful dove”
Shepherd of the cast out sheep
Leading the lost out of the barren desert
Into green pastures
Beside the stilled waters
Of courage and hope
In the day
Of the soon to be coming
King of Agape.

Firm and determined
Armed with the laws
Of persistence and resistance,
Our Martin
Challenged the systems of evil,
Took on the forces of darkness
Who blight the right of freedom
And the pursuit of happiness
And justified equality
Rightfully due
But denied by the chosen few
Who roped our souls
To poverty’s stronghold
And yoked our spirits
To conditions
Of forceful depression, repression and oppression.

Our Martin rose up
And faced the enemy down and out
Marching up the King’s highway
Fortified by mighty men
And women
Of valor
Taking on the brunt bats
Of angry mobs
Who sought
To bring them to their knees
Because those,
Being blinded
By bent hatred
And ferocious fear,
Could not hear the trumpet sound of
“God is love”
In the songs they sang,
Nor see the light of the new day
Birthing on the wings
Of the zeitgeist eagle
Soaring to the sky
Transforming the mind
High
Transcending time
Why?
To loam above the fray
With the conqueror’s belief
That the seemingly impossible
Is possible,
Though the day is ever hostile.

I commemorate and celebrate
Martin Luther King
A hero of his kind
Chosen to be a peacekeeper of the flame.
A son of God
Baptized by fire,
Christened by faith,
Chastened by adversity,
Anointed in strife.
A balm in Gilead
To soothe the broken soul
To made the wounded whole.

Reverend Lion
In our winter of discontent
In perpetual bondage
Being loosed
To escape from the toil and decay
Of slavery’s dark and dismal dismay.
Freed to partake
Of the fruits of liberty and justice for all
Self-evident
In the rally ‘round the flag
Of the red, white and blue
Stripes of healing blowing in the wind song
For Martin Luther
Citizen King
Unto thee I sing.

"We who believe in freed Cannot rest until it comes..."

Ruth