Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Feb 19, 2008 22:48:14 GMT -5
Ought-thenicity
Walking by the stream, I thought
How much I ought to do
Instead of praying tangled thoughts
For wisdom to unravel.
Instead of giving houseroom
To dreams and visions,
And granting them the immortality
Of words.
These are the things that hurtled
Joseph into a pit
And sold him as a slave.
What does the world desire of us
But works, good works
And oughts.
And so I struggle with “being”
Letting “Be” stand before “ought”
And find it wanting.
Then, turning back,
I watched reflected sunlight,
Dance joyously on water,
Blaze through the deadened grass.
And that was just a stream,
Reflecting that blaze of glory.
A stream-
Just being what it was, without apology.
Not saying,
“I ought to be a tree. A tree is useful!”
God made us all fit for a purpose,
Needing each other as the trees
Need streams and streams
Need rain.
Let us not shrink
Into the death of Oughtism,
But gladly sink into the skin of
The Being that God loves.
© Pauline Griffiths
Walking by the stream, I thought
How much I ought to do
Instead of praying tangled thoughts
For wisdom to unravel.
Instead of giving houseroom
To dreams and visions,
And granting them the immortality
Of words.
These are the things that hurtled
Joseph into a pit
And sold him as a slave.
What does the world desire of us
But works, good works
And oughts.
And so I struggle with “being”
Letting “Be” stand before “ought”
And find it wanting.
Then, turning back,
I watched reflected sunlight,
Dance joyously on water,
Blaze through the deadened grass.
And that was just a stream,
Reflecting that blaze of glory.
A stream-
Just being what it was, without apology.
Not saying,
“I ought to be a tree. A tree is useful!”
God made us all fit for a purpose,
Needing each other as the trees
Need streams and streams
Need rain.
Let us not shrink
Into the death of Oughtism,
But gladly sink into the skin of
The Being that God loves.
© Pauline Griffiths