Poem May 4, 1987 Issue

Psalm of peace

Hugh Pendexter III

Father, we weary of warfare:
Girt with atoms,
Panoplied with terror,
We long for peace.
O God! Deliver us from our own fury.

The warriors boast,
"We have disproved God;
We have bubbled our test tubes
And God is not in the test tube;
We have shattered the atom
And God is not in the atom;
We have cataloged man
And God is not in man
Whose life is protoplasm,
Whose body is a machine,
Whose brain is a computer."
and we fear they speak true.

Let the blind disprove the sunlight,
The deaf deny the ocean's roar.
Shall God indeed crouch in a test tube?
The Almighty skulk in an atom?
The All-knowing heed mortal heads—
Unthink His universe?
Unsay His world?
Unlove His children?

God's love is our peace and power.
Our love, like a diamond's glint,
Like a glazed image shines.
Against Love there is no immunity.
No wall can stem its contagion:
One loves and affects his neighbor;
We love and embrace the world.

Where is the power of the bomb
When Love forbids the button?

Hugh Pendexter III

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