Purpose

HOME

POEMS

QUOTES

PURPOSE

AUTHOR

MUSES

CONTACT

"Our society is built on the values of free speech and mutual respect, but cancel culture rejects both. In place of free speech, it demands conformity. Instead of mutual respect, it tears people down."
Nikki Haley

“In our earthly world we debate the idea of prison reform and rehabilitation, yet the cyber world’s ‘cancel-culture’ leaves no room for such hopes.”
Aysha Taryam

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Why These Poems?

This page is for those of you who're interested in a more detailed explanation, and regarding the more SERIOUS side of my website.

"If love neglected its responsibilities, it too would stand condemned."

"Love warns, instructs, disciplines, and even denies, because love isn't just loving,
but caringly and thoughfully wise."
The poet, author

Okay, given the many troubling issues in this world, and if we want to play our constructive part, we need to choose our personal area or areas of concern.
It’s my belief, that of all the issues bedeviling Earth, the greatest is a lack of love, thought and care, upon which every other issue is intrinsically dependant in terms of lasting (and overall) success. And all why love, thought and care should underpin every area of our concern and consequent action.
And therefore, love also standing up, speaking out, thus doing something, because love is just as much involved in the serious side of life as it is in the joyous side of life.
And so, given my areas of concern, what's on my website has been penned in order to stimulate thought, generate discussion and hopefully facilitate change (whilst meeting people where they are).

However,
in this age of cancel culture, opposite views (and indeed the people expressing them) are often responded to very badly, sad to say. All why the following should be borne in mind:

But moving on.
Though my website contains many poems of a general nature, there are five main reasons for my poetry, and those reasons being:
1)
My concern over inroads being made into freedom of expression, civil and religious liberty-cum-true
democracy.
2)
My concern over the state that our planet's in.
3)
My concern over the state of society today.
4)
My concern over the hopelessness, hurt and suffering that's out there.
5)
And though a Christian myself, my concern over the state of Christendom today (bearing in mind that Christendom and Christianity are two different things).

But continuing on.
These poems,  LIGHT-HEARTED,  SECULAR-GENERIC  and  RELIGIOUS  came as quite a surprise to me, having never done poetry before. It wasn't until about 2002, when I was around the age of 52, that they began.

One day I was feeling particularly upset over the things that I had been witnessing and hearing of within the Christian community. You see, in recent years I had become more committed to my Christian walk, and as a consequence, had been applying myself to serious indepth biblical study (upon which my Christian poetry is largely built), and as another consequence, had become more aware of what Christians (which meant me too), should be upholding and practicing, but were not, thus bringing Christianity into disrepute, and representing God badly — many folk ignorantly so, though not necessarily excusably so — for after all, Christians are supposed to be God’s ambassadors, aware of His will and walking in His ways.

As a result of having become more committed to my Christian walk, I had begun to see more clearly the tragic changes that have also been occurring within society.

In other words, and in a nutshell, my poetry-cum-website has been driven by an informed and urgent desire to:
1)
Awaken people to any forces that are currently working against their best interests.
2)
Awaken humanity to how it's fouling and destroying its own nest, planet Earth.
3)
Awaken society to how far it has strayed from that which once held it together, and to the harm that has resulted and is continuing.
4)
To provide hope for those who're feeling a sense of hopelessness, and to stand up for, and show thought and feeling for, those who're hurting or suffering in any way.
5)
Awaken Christendom to how far it has strayed from the apostolic teachings-cum-blueprint-cum-path for Christianity; to the woes and perils that have engulfed Christianity as a result; and to the faulty witness that it’s now presenting to the world.

Added to all the above, was the pain that I had experienced over the years, and was still experiencing, which was the result of:
a)  My own foolishness.
b)  Emotional struggles.
c)  A greater appreciation of the wrong and hurt that I myself had inflicted on others throughout my life (all of which I deeply regret and am truly sorry for; and some of it I struggle to understand).
d)  The insensitivity, indifference, unkindness and bigotry that I had personally experienced from others, and that I was still experiencing.

In other words, and in a nutshell, my poetry-cum-website has also been driven by an urgent desire to:

Spare others from the same mistakes that I have made.
Help people see how they may be hurting others, and harming themselves while at it.
Encourage a greater respect for life, others, the environment and its creatures.

Now getting back to where I came in (and with all this going on inside me).
I, for some unknown reason, took a pen, sat down, and tried putting something together in poetical form, starting with a Christian poem.

Let me reiterate and elaborate on my comment, “For some unknown reason” --
Prior to this occurrence, I had no interest in poetry whatsoever, and to the best of my knowledge had never done or learnt to do poetry, and even today after having penned over 2000 poems, still have no real interest in poetry, no desire to read poetry. Yes, I have immersed myself in such now, and have formed a deeper appreciation of this art, but it has simply become an accidental vehicle, one that I can only attribute to a divine source (confirmed more so over time) that has taken me down this track knowing that I would be prepared to oblige given the strong feelings I had (and have) about certain things, and my unconcern about being popular.
What I will mention here, is that just prior to my poetry beginnings, I had been asking God if He would give me some creative way of reaching people given previous unsuccessful attempts and frustration.

To continue.
My first attempts resulted in a number of poorly constructed poems, often with ill chosen words and poorly rendered verses which reflected my lack of poetical and even grammatical skill, and my lack of Christian growth. As time went by, my skill in the realm of poetry improved, but not before a number of my earlier attempts had circulated. The poems  represented here, are the ones I would rather be judged by, as it were, though many of them are still in fact early poems that I've been trying to go back over and improve as best I can. However, poetry is simply the vehicle being used here, and therefore is not my primary focus.
Regarding my first attempts (particularly the first 40 poems, say, since discarded), I guess there's always a learning period, not that it ended there.

The point of writing these poems is to express my own viewpoints, concerns, thoughts and even beliefs, and that should always be borne in mind when reading them. They are a reflection of my ongoing journey. I do not consider myself as being better or wiser than anyone else and am very aware that I still have a long way to go and am happy to receive all the help I can get. It’s just simply that a fountain of poetry has been springing forth from within me, as appears here, which I have often had people (both Christian and non–Christian), tell me I should publish. It is my hope that this poetical collage will stimulate thought, benefit others, and bring glory to my God, who I believe has used me (though an unworthy vessel) to express what’s in these poems, and to whom I give any credit and all the glory.
Thus I hope that your response to these poems will take into account the fact that God is still working on me, He hasn’t finished yet, so I may not have put things together as well as He might have liked. If so, I ask your forgiveness, and His forgiveness too.

I would like to point out that certain things expressed in these poems are not necessarily my experience, but what I have seen experienced in the lives of others.

I believe that we should consider very carefully, thoughtfully, and thus fairly what another person is saying. Though we may ultimately disagree with what they are saying, and still hold to our own views or beliefs, this should not preclude us from keeping an open mind. Many have found with time that what they thought was right, was actually wrong, or that what they thought was wrong, was actually right. May I suggest to you that it is not differing views or beliefs that cause the problem, nor the expressing of them, but those bad responses or attitudes that many display towards another who expresses (or practices) different views or beliefs to them.

And further to.
I was raised a Christian; wandered away from my faith and my Lord; slowly returned; later became seriously committed to the Christian walk and my faith; and have since applied myself to in-depth biblical study, something that I believe is a necessity for every Christian.

My Christian beliefs are built firmly upon the Bible and the Bible alone, not the church that I and my wife attend, all why I haven't mentioned my denomination (though quite prepared to). At the end of the day, what I'm conveying via my website is either correct, biblical, logical, factual or not, and such you must decide for yourself. But to be honest, too many people judge people by their denomination rather than seeing them as an individual.

I’m not conservative by nature, but conservative by belief and choice regarding my Christian walk, the result of what I believe is the restraining and transforming influence of the Holy Spirit upon my earthly, worldly nature and behaviour, and also the result of my greater understanding of the Holy, righteous nature of my God and His desire that I emulate His nature and abide by His will in all areas of my life. Due to such necessary pruning, one's tastes, desires, and actions naturally become more conservative and temperate.

My desire is to always put God first in my life; to be a better Christian, husband and father; to have a greater love for, and be a greater blessing to, my fellow man; and that love motivate all I do. My thrust here, can be somewhat summed up in the following quote:

Do I consider myself as being better than others? No! I'm simply someone who is endeavouring to be a better person, someone who is endeavouring to walk more in accordance with God's will (and thus less hypocritically, though still stumbling, still messing up, and even losing it at times), and I am happy to receive all the help that I can get on that journey. Meantime, I'm trying to help others too, trying to play my part in making this world a better place, and am doing what I can to ease the lot of others — one's first port of call being, speaking out, making a stand, and sometimes that is all that we're able to do regarding certain things.

I do not believe in church unity but the unity of all believers. In other words, I believe Christians of all faiths should be treated as brothers and sisters in Christ, shown unconditional love, acceptance and respect, despite their differing beliefs. I believe the same love and respect should be shown to every human.

I also believe in the complete separation of Church and State (Mark 12:17; John 18:36). And one reason I don't believe in church unity is because I believe the ecumenical movement is aiding the following, and that is (based on very extensive research), that a political-religious system (aided by a Reformation reversal, those calls for reunification) will soon dominate the world scene just prior to Christ's soon return, and with ultimately dire consequences (focus being America). In other words, a New World Order (one world government); such effectively but a wolf in sheep's clothing, and no doubt preaching love, peace and harmony, aided by some orchestrated events, terrorism, calamities, lawlessness, etc. Hence those calls for this and that. And sadly, this global power that demands worship (according to the Christian Bible), will fool most of Earth's inhabitants (Rev 13:11-18).

Well, there you have it.

Kind regards,
Lance Landall, poet and author.

Regarding any biblical texts that appear on my website:
Where not indicated otherwise, they're from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Other versions used include the RSV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, ESV, NASB; and I've also used the NLT a number of times.
Any bracketed comments within a text or texts have been inserted by me.