Tag: poem

A poem for Holocaust Memorial Day

A poem for Holocaust Memorial Day, 27th January, and going forward. Today we still need to remember our human capacity for inhumanity, that the Holocaust took place in a democratic country with a democratically elected government, and still within living memory. Remember, many of the perpetrators saw themselves as ‘Christian’.



1	As we remember holocaust,	

	in horror disbelieving

	the history of the human race,

	we share each other's grieving;

	God purge us of hypocrisy,

	of all our self-deceiving.



2	Our language is inadequate,

	unfit for the expression

	of hatred that we visualise,

	humanity's confession;

	we hurry headlong into hell,

	we witness love's regression.



3	The deepest, distant agony

	that throbs through all creation,

	the silent tears that quietly fall

	in every generation,

	are signs of our humanity,

	our need for re-creation.



4	God give us strength to make a pledge

	to move beyond contention,

	to see, in each, humanity.

	Through greater good intention,

	God, move us toward a purer love,

	a gracious intervention.



Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2003 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.

‘With tender conviction’ – Wesley’s Catholic Spirit – a poem (or a song seeking a tune?)

Catholic Spirit 



With tender conviction I sense love is calling, 

no grace is withheld, nor forgiveness repressed, 

all people are held in unfathomable comfort, 

this love is eternal, forever expressed. 



The judgment some fear is a human construction, 

for grace is a scandal for those who would judge, 

they see it as fair to condemn, exact hatred, 

while mercy is something they want to begrudge. 



For me none is distanced from love by an action, 

a word or a deed, we might not understand,

yet God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension, 

if you share this creed, my friend, give me your hand!



[For me none is distanced from love by an action, 

compassionate grace, could not set us apart,

for God’s love is wider, beyond comprehension, 

if you share this creed, then we are of one heart.]*



*Alternative last stanza after conversation and critique by Pesky Methodists, thankyou!



© Andrew Pratt 5am 29/11/2021 - 4/12/2021

Link to A version of John Wesley’s sermon



God would not will what we have seen

1	God would not will what we have seen,
	the terror, violence, death;
	for God is love, the source of life,
	the essence of our breath.

2	God would not break the damaged reed,
	the smouldering wick is fanned;
	yet human power, our want and greed
	can counter what God planned.

3	Our will is free, our way we choose,
	to act for good or ill,
	to offer love, to calm or heal,
	to damage or to kill.

4	God give us courage in the face
	of carnage that we see,
	to work for life, to live for love,
	to set your people free.

Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948) (alt Andrew Pratt 13/8/2021
Words © 2006 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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.
Metre: CM