Poetry With A Mission



...a thought provoking poetical exercise.

Head The Cries, Lord

“For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil”
(Eccl 12:14).

Heed the cries of men, oh Lord, who were murdered in Your name,
Heed the cries of women too, who likewise suffered the same.
Heed the cries of children, Lord, whose young lives were taken too,
And the cries of babies — some still in wombs — that evil slew.

Heed the cries of martyrs, Lord, that were shackled in Your name,
Stretched on racks, skinned alive, burnt at stakes, though without blame.
Yes, heed the cries of martyrs, Lord, beheaded, or slain by sword,
Those whose blood was sacrificed and over Your altar poured.

Heed the cries of every Jew, not to mention others too,
That Hitler and his henchmen sent to death camps queue by queue.
All those paraded naked, mocked, tortured, raped, burnt alive,
Or experimented on -- oh, how did any survive?

Heed the cries that echo from Auschwitz, Ravensbrook, Belsen,
Not to mention other camps where evil occurred within.
Yes, heed the cries of victims, Lord, now just ashes and bones,
That suffered atrocities that only madness condones.

Heed the cries of latter days -- e.g. Guantanamo Bay,
Those cries of the innocent -- that there -- were wrongly sent to stay.
Those cries from other prisons, torture chambers or death camps,
Where on the rights of others a contemporary jackboot stamps.

Heed the cries of the oppressed — any, Lord, who’ve been trampled on,
All who’ve been falsely accused, any who’ve been set upon.
Heed the cries of any race, any faith, so afflicted,
Heed the cries of anyone persecuted, wrongly convicted.

Yes, heed the cries, Lord, heed the cries from the past and today,
And the actions of tyrants — past and present — duly weigh.
Avenge the cries of martyrs, the innocent — Christian or atheist,
Still the jackboots, Lord, religious persecutors, the iron fist.

By Lance Landall


“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body [in this life], whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10)

Note: Jackboots — Such were worn by the German Nazis.