A Two-Way Conversation

A TWO-WAY CONVERSATION

Prayer is a two-way conversation
I pray to God
I confess my sins
I ask for forgiveness
Then I listen
for the voice of God
and God will speak to me
He will lead me forward into life
He will be my guide
He will indicate the correct path to take
The main part of prayer
is silence
listening
waiting
for a word from God
God communicates to us
through prayer
for prayer is a two-way conversation

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 1st November 1966

Publications

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
1987 Christian Living (USA)

His

HIS

Once

I was dead
dead and dead
and dead indeed

But now I live
I have been raised
from the realm of the dead
to the land of the living
I have emptied myself
of the dead matter
which lay within me
blocking the passage of truth
I have filled this empty shell
with Christ
He dwells inside me
I am his
and his alone

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 1st November 1966

Publications

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
2000 THE POETRY CHURCH COLLECTION FOR LENT AND EASTER 2000 (Shrewsbury, Feather Books)

Still Dead

STILL DEAD

I thought it could be done
but now I know it can not
Once you are dead
you are dead
and dead indeed
I thought I could be resurrected
I thought I could kill death
But you cannot live by dying
Two deaths do not make a birth
I thought that he who raised Lazarus
could also raise me
but the dead cannot raise the dead
and I have killed him
I drove the nails into his hands
I hung him on the cross
upon the hill called Calvary
outside the city walls
of Jerusalem
I am also responsible for my own death
I committed mental suicide
I committed the unforgivable sin
of rebelling against the Holy Ghost
Yet the Devil has not purchased my soul
I cannot go into Hell
but neither can I reach Heaven
and I do not believe in Purgatory
so where am I ?

I am a ghost without a castle to haunt
a prophet without a prophesy to preach
a magician without a spell to weave
I am still not alive
I am still dead

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st October 1966

Publication

1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

God

GOD

God is not to be found on the mountain-top
The view is not of insecurity
Security to the insecure seems as insecurity;
the mountain it is which is paltry

His absence from the world
is merely the illusion of blind men
He is not the absentee landlord
He created everything
He built nothing
He is un-religious

God is not a guy
who lives in the sky
or on mountain-tops
He is everything to do with me and you

He made the world
but we forgot
and do not listen to the orders
sent from his throne

His crown
is a crown of thorns,
his throne a bramble bush
We called him insane
and locked him away
up in the sky
on the top of the mountain

And if you want
to break his laws
do, but remember,
he does care
and did care
and if was insane
then better his madness
than our sanity

God's not a guy
who lives in the sky
He's everything to do with me and you

© Gerald England

Composed: Ackworth, 11th September 1966

Publication
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

Paradox

PARADOX

The passed-on have not passed on
the living are not alive
soon the time will come
when time will not be
and the complete will be incomplete
the end has begun
continuance is discontinued
the truthful lie
the lying prove true
they are coming
but they won't stay long
soon be gone
and what is this heaven
which men call hell ?
it is the life we live
the death we die
the future is past
the past not come
and as for the present
it is absent
and all is nothing
nothing is all
love is a hateful thing
the straight is crooked
the crooked straight
and the real paradox is
that there is no paradox

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st September 1966

Publications
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)
1994 International Poetry (USA)
1997 8 (Internet)
2001 SECOND INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY ON PARADOXISM (Romania, Anotimp & Abaddaba)

LSD

The text of this poem is not to hand.

Composed: Glasgow, 10th August 1966

Publication
POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

Song for the Unconverted

SONG FOR THE UNCONVERTED

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You only have to do good deeds
supplying others' needs

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

The man in the shop who sells us soap
will no more in the darkness grope

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

All good children say your prayers
when you have gone up the stairs

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You soldiers on the battlefield
don't buy a ticket - there is no need

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

You don't even have to be a Christian
just be a good man or good woman

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

As long as you repent in
the end, don't worry about sin

Everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!
Everyone's going to heaven

If everyone's going to heaven
Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!
I want to go to Hell!

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow 6th April 1966

Publication
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)

Free Life?

FREE LIFE?

Born into this world was I,
not of my free choice, but by
an act of love removed from all
thoughts of me, but yet I came,
without any call
to join the game.

As I wander through this life,
I do encounter much strife,
for which no-one has asked, but still
it comes to disturb the mind,
and put through the mill,
all who are kind

I travel from day to day
a rough and barren way
that leads to where I do not know,
but I still do journey on
finding as I go
that life has gone

Sometimes I stop for a rest
and I examine the quest;
is life really as meaningless
as to me it now would seem?
and is happiness
more than a dream?

An answer I cannot give;
strange is the life that I live,
to try to win when others lose,
putting trust in that I hold
no orthodox views
but ones quite bold

One day I know I shall die
no matter how I cry;
in birth and death I have no say,
live today, tomorrow dead
Here I shall not stay
nor make my bed.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 3rd March 1966

Publication
1966 POETIC SEQUENCE FOR FIVE VOICES (Glasgow, St John's)