There are two things you traditionally do not talk about in polite company. Religion and politics. 

I’m finding that a bit of a struggle at the moment, because as I said in an earlier blog post, these are two big themes in the next sequence of books in the Shaihen Heritage series Children of the Spirit (still not sure if it’s another trilogy or just two books – I’ll let you know when I get to an end!). So I’ve been doing quite a lot of thinking recently not only about politics, which seem to me to be a pretty useless tool for achieving anything meaningful, and about religion. For me, as I’m of British descent, that means Christianity.

When I was in my late teens, I did actually read and indeed study quite a lot of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and this is where  inspiration for the following poem comes from. I call it Revelation, or When Love Came Back to Judge Us.  

When Love came back to judge us

She asked how we had done

“Did you care for all my creatures?

Did you cherish every one?”

 

“And have you left the children

All the bounties of my Earth?

The sea, the sky, the mountains

All the gifts they had at birth?”

 

We showed her our technology

We offered her our gold

Our buildings and computers

But these things left Love cold

 

We showed her all our artworks

She thought them very fine

“You’ve created things of beauty

But none as good as mine.”

 

“Where are all the tigers?

The Orang and the whale?

Why can’t I hear the birdsong?

Is this the ending of my tale?

 

I gave you love. I gave you life.

You’re the children of my womb

Yet all you give me back is death.

You seal me in a tomb.

 

And this shall be Love’s judgement

The earth stripped of its worth

By the hungry, curious creatures

The earth herself brought forth.