God is among all the cries of the dying,
buried in fear amid hurt and disdain,
breathing the dust of destruction, despairing,
holding each mother and feeling her pain.
God, like a mother, once torn from her children,
weeps in the darkness, has nowhere to turn,
fenced by the horror and starved by indiff’rence,
nations watch blindly while homes fall or burn.
God, stand beside us, God mother and comfort,
God you despaired as you hung, bled and died,
now in this moment, God hold and enfold us,
interpose Love where all love was denied.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2022 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
11 10 11 10
Tune: STEWARDSHIP
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hymnsandbooks 
This is a superb piece of work, Andrew. Thank you. Very thought provoking.
I wonder why you use the past tense as the penultimate word? I suspect the present tense fits better with ‘this moment’
Might I also comment on
‘Nations watch blindly’. I am not sure they do….unless you are referring to their not seeing God/Love. I think they see clearly but are confused at what they should do.
For me, nations are paralysed whilst homes fall or burn. This feeling too makes me wonder about ‘indiff’rence’. A wonderful poetic choice of word, but is it really true? The people I know ( the nearest I get to a nation) are not indifferent but impotent.
I am so glad you wrote and posted this.
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Answers – Past tense? It really need a continuous tense, but I resist present, just a little, as so many hurt now because of what had been before, but your comment is valid. We are presented with a maze of contradictions.
Nations are, almost by definition, ‘blinded’ by self interest. If we were not we we not worry about the personal consequences of a no-fly zone for instance. While death and destruction are the norm in many nations, we avoid resistance in case we are hurt ourselves. Jesus interposed himself between heater and hatred absorbing the totality of hatred. We are not strictly impotent but we resist the enormity that is consequent on our being human shields which is the consequence of active pacifism. However, my comment is observation and admission of complicity rather than criticism. Hand washing, if you will.
Thanks for the critique. It has made me reflect.
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