Remembering a picture from Japan, after the tsunami

Faith of our fathers
A line from a hymn I once knew
But I am thinking of old men
Who remember things as they never were
Women, blacks, gays
All pushed aside or
Inside any one of many
Small, predefined spaces
Faith once meant more than this
Rigorous minds asking
Hard questions
That ultimately arrived at the point
Of their own limitations
Their honest confession a witness to
What they did not know fully
But hoped to be true
A long journey, and tortured for some
So that now, when I see that old, frail man
Bowing low at a shrine to the ancestors
I hope that I, too, will someday
Bow low
And honor the quiet knowing
The rest enjoyed only by those
Whose death marked - not the end -
But the beginning
Of their next, great journey

dg

5/17/11

Sent from my iPad
http://jdavidgamble.blogspot.com/

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