walk the path of Jesus

i have halted my hoping

for your encouragement

and you sustaining my work

of justice and reconciliation

and i expect not you

the patron of the patronizing

rich and the insensitive pretenders

to keep my vision alive

for i am brutally betrayed

by the same kiss of Judas, the pan handler

and cautiously rejected

by the chief priests and caesars of today

and thereafter cruelly crucified

by the sadistic fun loving masses

but will i not continue in the same path

of that crucified Jesus of Nazareth

henry victor     21.06.2003

strengthening my solidarity

from the fossils buried deep under glaciers

earth, and oceans, your writings of the history

of my world you continuously create and heal

i decipher my revelatory beliefs of you, to call

it my theology, promoting it with my praises

of you so silly, empty, and deceptive to neighbors

and self without strengthening my solidarity

with that life-giving mother nature

the rivers, the plants, the animals and the fowls

including the turkey, a foolish imitator of the peacock

may be then, and may be then, i will have a chance

of not ending myself a sandy, or a stony fossil

© henry victor             27.12.2002

 

 

my faith

how big should be my canvas

to paint a splendid painting

satisfying my soul, or the Source

the Soul that paints my soul

if it is small as my thumb nail

will it be pushed away

and dismissed as narrowly

moralistic, unduly silly

and what if it is wide, wide

as the world beyond my window!

will this be sacked as political

a revolt against the Heaven!

what if i make it my palm size

connecting dots and lines therein!

will such an art be brushed aside

as too mathematical, merely cerebral!

© henry victor

the hoe, the rake and the wheelbarrow

the hoe, the rake, and the wheelbarrow

my constant companions of yesteryear

provided me healing to body, mind

and my soul, transforming also my land

the hoe, the rake, and the wheelbarrow

those simple tools with greater output

fed bigger mouths with larger bellies

grounding me on a very real ground

the hoe, the rake, and the wheelbarrow

the pen and the pencil of humble poor

wrote on pages of the mother earth

for me, the scholar, to read and live well

© henry victor     25.04.2003

pleadings from a bleeding heart

i am tired and i need to sleep

but by sticking to the truth and equality
of all persons made in your image
i have lost that sleep that i long very much!

in this world money in wallet

with size and location of ones abode
determine the value of men
and women demolishing all your values!

hence i sit here tapping my keyboard

to utter my unutterable pleading
bleeding from my soul
that has been sold and sold to you!

how long and how long should i tap

before you open your ear, your heart
to let my cries reach your throne
to release some relief, that grace!

hasten, Oh God! hasten to re-make

your world, where men and women
of all status will enjoy that respect
we give to the throne we have built here!

 

peace and tranquility

i do not turn to you for my peace and tranquility

though i will enjoy both if they are a by-product of truth,
righteousness and a sense of equality with no discrimination
towards the small, the poor, the less fortunate -

those who live in a humble

abode, and use little
or, no weight to throw around
to make life easy for themselves!

i find my moments with you filled with agitation

for i bring much conflicts to your table
ending up battling you like Jacob with the angels
on his way to make peace with his brother Esau!

i pray that you give me grace when the going is tough

that i may never disown that which you own
deep in your heart and soul that i may learn your will
and live the same even when that brings nothing -

nothing but a constant pain

for there is more peace
being grafted to your mind
than in all peace and tranquility!

memory and forgetfulness

i’m amused, amazed by your solitary heart

from which my memory and forgetfulness
flow into mine as a sacred gift and a trust
i need to employ in all my wakefulness

i’m baffled, bemused by those contrary elements

operating within me simultaneously to embrace and reject
you the prime source for my holding tight and the negate
of your negating my negations of you, your rudiments

i’m certain, confident in your inclination for plural

ways of dealing with color and creed, both in multiple
and i will find special favor among yours, not unequal
among the other, affirming that mine is never too little

© henry victor     18.05.2003