The Land of the Thou Shalt Nots

IN THE LAND OF THE THOU SHALT NOTS

This is a poem written for a mission at Queen's University some ten years ago. It got me into a lot of controversy that night. It then appeared in my collection Journey Through a Dark Reflection. Last month Trevor Morrow was speaking at New Horizons in Coleraine and quoted it during one of his Bible Readings. I was deeply honoured and have had quite a number of requests for the poem. So here it is. Rereleased as a web page single.

Thou shalt not wear
Thou shalt not drink
Thou shalt not joke
Thou shalt not think
Thou shalt not hear
Thou shalt not see
Thou shalt not say
Thou shalt not be
Thou shalt settle down in the trenches
In the land of the thou shalt nots
What on earth then can we do
My goodness I've forgot.

Thou shalt go to church on Sunday
Thou shalt wear a plastic smile
Thou shalt be content to be discontent
Thou shalt be happy in a little while
Thou shalt talk about the needy
Thou shalt pray they make it through
Thou shalt thank the Lord you're not like them
Though shalt be orange and blue
Though shalt settle down in quarentine
In the land of the thou shalt nots
And everyone you ever meet
Will long for what you've got.

Thou shalt not even enter a public house
Thou shalt not turn water into wine
Thou shalt not question authority
Thou shalt not put religion on the line
Thou shalt not mix with sinners
Thou shalt not talk to prostitutes
Thou shalt not be in the world at all
Thou shalt not be their substitute
Thou shalt settle down in the trenches
In the land of the thou shalt nots
And all this talk of a radical Jesus
Is just some muslim, Buddhist, communist, humanist, socialist, ecumenical, new age, popish PLOT!

I realised as I typed this one in that a new poem is pretty similar in its point.

LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JESUS
I want to get out of this town
Where you've got to ask permission to laugh
There are towers they say to be prousd of
Casting shadows all across my path
Where the Church is like a fortress
And the draw bridge never comes down
The preacher's preaching seamless sermons
Where there's no spaces to be found
I'm going to look for another Jesus
One that God could believe in as well
I'm seeking a role in heaven's movie
instead of this dress rehearsal for hell.

I want to get off of these streets
Where time is slow and progress not as fast
Where history is like a treadmill mouse
And news reporters just replay the past
Where they know how God will answer
Before they say the futile prayers they pray
Where creativity is said to be of the devil
By the demon of always done it this way
I'm going to look for another Jesus
One that God could believe in as well
I'm seeking a role in heaven's movie
instead of this dress rehearsal for hell.

I want to get off of these streets
Stained in the blood of red, white and blue
Where solutions are simply handed down
Without anybody looking up any clues
Where you kick your ball against a gable wall
And balaclavas head it right back
And the guns they point are the only proof
You need to know what they believe is true
I'm going to look for another Jesus
One that God could believe in as well
I'm seeking a role in heaven's movie
Instead of this dress rehearsal for hell.

Journey is not in arriving but in the going
Work is not in harvest but in the sowing
Life is not in birth but in the growing
Growth is not being told but in the knowing.

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