Bare Talk

It’s all I am hearing

Just bare talk,

In the morning and evening

Wherever I walk.

We will do this and that

But no timeline,

Bare talk I am hearing

Little action of any kind.

There is a need for that

It must be done

But don't hold your breath

You had better run.

You just might not live

Should you even dare!

Cause talk in fashion

That is my fear.

Give us a chance

We will get to that

But concerning when

Not a crack.

Bear talk I am hearing

From high and low,

"Even in the church"

Someone told me so.

They say talk is cheap

It is comforting too

But I’m no fool

And I trust not you.

Well it comes down to if

If we can get it done

We will tap the rhythm

If we have the drum.

We will follow through

Never you doubt

But just talk I’m hearing

And they even shout.

  

It is really bad

We didn’t know it was so

But we will fix it

We told you so.

We’ll stick to our word

No need to fear,

I suppose "nuff" talk helps

To clear the air.

In this regard

There’s a new term around,

"Let’s have a conversation"

How does that sound?

Bare talk in the church

Bare talk in the land

Bare talk everywhere

That must be the plan.

 Bear talk in the community

But not so on the block

Action galore

We can’t get it stopped.

Guns  are barking

And knives are stabbing

Culprits are watching

And property grabbing.

No time for talk

But lots of action instead,

Nothing we can do

Eighteen already dead.

Words, words, words

Oratorical and eloquent,

Bare talk I am hearing

Sounds rather fluent.

Makes a lot of sense

Pretty talking does

But until the action comes

Words just buzz.

I’m hearing bare talk

Inconsequential chatter

But regarding action

That’s a different matter.

Talk sets us up

We even begin to hope

But when nothing changes

It is difficult to cope.

I would leave

But planes getting grounded

And where would I go?

Talk has us surrounded.

Nothing before its time

Maybe that applies here

But the talk I’m hearing

Doesn’t abate my fear.

I have a solution

But that would be bare talk too

It's a God-given solution

But who will follow through?

A return to God's word

That's what I would advocate,

It's the best life manual

Make no mistake

Transformation is action

It is a modelled walk,

It is Christ-like behaviour

It is not just bare talk.

Stewart Russell © March 2019

What Madness Is This?

 

What madness is this? Pray tell!

I mean this mystery on our roads,

Two months in the year only just complete

And several families are carrying death’s load.

Lost of loved ones on our streets

Including the young and most promising:

Four at one swoop on our highway

Leaving loved ones in grief and languishing.

Just imagine the pain and the dread

As the news crystalizes in one’s head

Having been awakened from one’s comfortable bed

Only to be told that a loved one is dead.

Or imagine the hurt and the pain

When reading the news on the front page

Of the daily tabloid the next morning

As it captures the sorrow and rage.

Consider the alarming statistic

Regarding the number of deaths on our streets:

More in two months than all of last year

Is nothing more alarming than an undesirable feat.

And as though that were not enough

Think of the lives lost to knife and bullet

Plaguing this little island with such regularity

That it now must be considered as a habit.

Yes gun and knife targeting our youth,

Life being snuffed out as though of no value;

Lying in the street in a pool of blood,

Why, oh why?  I wish I knew.

Or maybe I truly know the reason why

But such an answer would not suffice

Given the change in our country

That is now gripped in the throes of vice.

Some may say it was always like this-

Always occurrences of unnatural deaths;

To that I would say yes, but not nearly as many,

Having now reached the level of public unrest.

  

And then there is that disturbing incident-

A woman on her way to clean the church

Mauled by ferocious dogs not far from her home

Rendering all rescue attempts somewhat inert.

Scarcely a weekend passes without an event

That interrupts the tranquility of our community,

Very often the death of a young and vibrant youth

Taken via some heart wrenching tragedy.

What madness is this, pray tell,

That has engulfed this once idyllic land of ours?

How can we halt it?  Is there not a way?

How can we put an end to these horrors?

Yes gun and knife targeting our youth

Life being snuffed out as though of no value;

Lying in the street in a pool of blood

Why oh why?  I wish I knew.

In four simple words the advice is given

“Repent and be converted” is the counsel,

Let us turn to God who is the Creator of all

Let us return and no longer rebel

Therein lies the answer to the previous verse

However, this is not readily taken to heart

For the more the Lord God reaches out to us

The more we are inclined from Him to depart.

It is certainly not the scholarly thing to do,

It is neither the grandiose nor the bold,

Either we are too academic to believe such stuff

Or we are too great and mighty to fold.

We prefer to fold under our own rebellious weight

Than to capitulate and bow to Almighty God;

Meanwhile our youth yield in compliance to evil

Totally deceived by Satan the fraud.

Yes I am hearing you loud and clear

There is no mistaking the trend of your thought,

That Jesus thing is for societal cop-outs

There is nothing therein with which I can be bought.

That is a sad commentary regarding the offer

That God has made to you and me,

However, I draw to your attention the plight again

As I present this final plea.

Yes gun and knife targeting our youth

Life being snuffed out as though of no value;

Lying in the street in a pool of blood

Why oh why?  I wish I knew.

Selfishness and avarice: these two components

Are responsible for our country’s dire state,

Sin summarizes all that these two entail

And develops them at a rapid rate.

Soon there is little that one would not do

To satisfy one’s compelling and innate urge;

At the drop of a hat that one will take a life

And usher in yet another funeral dirge.

There go I but for the grace of God

Only His grace betwixt me and my sin,

So turn, I repeat, turn to the Creator of all,

Renounce your rebellion and turn to Him.

Stewart Russell © 2017