Too Muching . . .

 

Sometimes, Lord,

it just seems to be too much:

    too much violence, too much fear;

    too much of demands and problems;

    too much of broken dreams and broken lives;

    too much of war and slums and dying;

    too much of greed and squishy fatness

        and the sounds of people

            devouring each other

                and the earth;

too much of stale routines and quarrels,

    unpaid bills and dead ends;

too much of words lobbed in to explode

    and leaving shredded hearts and lacerated souls;

too much turned-away backs and yellow silence,

    red rage and bitter taste of ashes in my mouth

Sometimes the very air seems scorched

    by threats and rejection and decay

        until there is nothing

        but to inhale pain

            and exhale confusion.

Too much of darkness, Lord,          

    too much of cruelty

        and selfishness

            and indifference…

Too much, Lord,

    too much,

        too bloody,

            bruising,

                brain-washing much.

 Or is it too little,

    too little of compassion,

    too little of courage,

        of daring,

        of persistence,

        of sacrifice;

    too little of music

        and laughter

            and celebration?

O God,

make of me some nourishment

    for these starved times,

        some food for my brothers and sisters

    who are hungry for gladness and hope,

        that, being bread for them,

    I may also be fed

        And be full

Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace