11 October 2008

poems in the machine

i happened to be doing some research as part of my job, and while trying to locate information on online quiz design i stumbled (consider how that happened as you will) on this poem by steve turner ... and i dig it.









If Jesus was born today
it would be in a downtown motel
marked by a helicopter's flashing bulb.
A traffic warden, working late,
would be the first upon the scene.
Later, at the expense of a TV network,
an eminent sociologist,
the host of a chat show
and a controversial author
would arrive with their good wishes
-the whole occasion to be filmed as part of the
'Is This The Son Of God?' one hour special.
Childhood would be a blur of photographs and speculation
dwindling by his late teens into
'Where Is He Now?' features in Sunday magazines.

If Jesus was thirty today
they wouldn't really care about the public ministry,
they'd be too busy investigating His finances
and trying to prove He had Church or Mafia connections.
The miracles would be explained by
an eminent and controversial magician,
His claims to be God's Son recognised as
excellent examples of Spoken English
and immediately incorporated into
the O-Level syllabus,
His sinless perfection considered by moral philosophers
as, OK, but a bit repressive.

If Jesus was thirty-one today
He'd be the fly in everyone's ointment-
the sort of controversial person who
stands no chance of eminence.
Communists would expel Him, capitalists
would exploit Him or have Him
smeared by people who know a thing or two about God.
Doctors would accuse Him of quackery,
soldiers would accuse Him of cowardice,
theologians would take Him aside and try
to persuade Him of His non-existence.

If Jesus was thirty-two today we'd have to
end it all. Heretic, fundamentalist, literalist,
puritan, pacifist, non-conformist, we'd take Him
away and quietly end the argument.
But the argument would rumble in the ground
at the end of three days and would break out
and walk around as though death was some bug,
saying 'I am the resurrection and the life...
No man cometh to the Father but by me'.
While the magicians researched new explanations
and the semanticists wondered exactly what
He meant by 'I' and 'No man' there would be those
who stand around amused, asking for something
called proof.


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1 comment:

  1. Fable 666

    Fable 666
    Fable 666
    SALVATION
    Fable 666
    The good news is THIS, Salvation has come to EARTH.
    The bad news is to some of you; it is only found in JESUS.
    There is a prevalent personal jesus in the CHURCH today
    So that people have confused the works of the spirit with Salvation, judging others by what they themselves of course are doing wrong even neglection of Christ as the cornerstone. Also there is an inflated self-important personage inside people, not as something special made of GOD, but as something fashioned not from GOD at all, but from their laws. The first thing to remember is the wooden thing the CROSS, how JESUS stretched his arms and gave to us his life, HIS DEATH is saving us. HE laid inside a TOMB of absolutely stone in a place no one really ever wants to go.
    Conflict comes when people live in houses and drive cars money is the plastic jesus ruling all their lives and hearts.
    Let me tell you Mister LAW if you have murdered to further your influence and your wealth you just may someday wake up in a burning HELL. For the final chapter written in the judgment hall of GOD is the Hell of GOD to come from judgment to them all the naked and the dead shall stand there and give account of everything they done to a JUST and living GOD. No badge upon your chest no belt with bullits and with guns. No one to take your place for HE is sitting on the throne judging everyone. The Trick if trickery there is to come is to say the namme of JESUS and just do it quickly for there is horror waiting in the afterlife for someone misinformed in LAW. Rich men seldom win the battles with the sin. Everyone needs JESUS. Say JESUS and come in to a Heaven made of LOVE.
    http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?poemnumber=889126&sitename=charlax&password=&poemoffset=0&displaypoem=t&item=poetry

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