Another poem from the man, the myth, the small scale farmer, Wendell Berry.
We who prayed and wept
for liberty from kings
and the yoke of liberty
accept the tyranny of things
we do not need.
In plenitude too free,
we have become adept
beneath the yoke of greed.
Those who will not learn
in plenty to keep their place
must learn it by their need
when they have had their way
and the fields spurn their seed.
We have failed Thy grace.
Lord, I flinch and pray,
send Thy necessity.
Amen, Wendy! I love it. So true. So insightful. So wise. So devastating. So human. *sigh*
A Parody
They who prayed and wept
for liberty against the taxes of the kings
and the yoke of liberty which was meant only for the whites
accept the tyranny of things as in
conquering foreign lands
for raw materials and markets
in the Far East.
Indeed, the adeptness in greed and selfishness
showed in infants and children murdered
in some far-flung boondocks in the Southeast
(because they were barbarians in the 1900s)
We have not simply failed Thy grace
But we have given the enemies of the Cross
Reasons to mock and rejoice
Lord, because we confess forgive
And return the favors to us that we might learn
We do not won the universe.
This poem eloquently captures the essence of Kelsi’s blog on the invisible hand.
“Lord, I (too) flinch and pray, send Thy necessity.”
Good stuff B.