RANDOM THOUGHTS





RANDOM THOUGHTS

 

 

by

 

 

FRANK A VOLLMER

 

 

 

 

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CAROUSEL

 

 

THERE WAS A WAR TORN VILLAGE IN GERMANY           

IN WHOSE VILLAGE SQUARE

WAS A CAROUSEL

DAMAGED

THOUGH THE LION

STILL CHASED THE TIGER

WHO CHASED THE HORSE

BUT THE MUSIC WAS STILLED

 

IT NEEDS REBIRTH I THOUGHT

TO RESTORE LAUGHTER TO THE CHASE

IT NEEDS REBIRTH

 

ODD PHRASE I THOUGHT

WHEN USED BY CHRISTIANS

AS IF BY MERELY THINKING IT

THE CAROUSEL WAS FIXED

 

NO MENTION OF THE MECHANIC

AND THE CARPENTER’S SKILL

 

AND WHEN FIXED

NO MENTION OF THE MAINTENANCE

 

WHEN ONE IS REBORN BY WATER

AND THE SPIRIT

IS THAT THE END OF IT

 

WILL THE HORSE NEVER LOSE AN EAR

WILL THE STRAP ON THE GIRAFFE

NEVER BREAK

OR THE CALLIOPE

NEVER NEED TUNING

 

WILL THE PERSON

THE DAY AFTER BEING SAVED

STILL NEED TO SHAVE

 

WILL SHOELACES NEVER BREAK

OR TOAST BE BURNED

WILL HE NEVER WAKE UP GRUMPY

 

WILL HE NEVER

CRAVE A WOMAN NOR WEALTH

WILL HE NEVER BE TESTED BY HEALTH

 

MERRY GO ROUNDS NEED FIXING

AND SO DO WE

BEFORE THE LION

WILL CHASE THE TIGER

WHO CHASES THE HORSE

 

AND THE CALLIOPE FILLS THE AIR

 

 

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CAROUSEL

 

 

THERE WAS A WAR TORN VILLAGE IN GERMANY           

IN WHOSE VILLAGE SQUARE

WAS A CAROUSEL

DAMAGED

THOUGH THE LION

STILL CHASED THE TIGER

WHO CHASED THE HORSE

BUT THE MUSIC WAS STILLED

 

IT NEEDS REBIRTH I THOUGHT

TO RESTORE LAUGHTER TO THE CHASE

IT NEEDS REBIRTH

 

ODD PHRASE I THOUGHT

WHEN USED BY CHRISTIANS

AS IF BY MERELY THINKING IT

THE CAROUSEL WAS FIXED

 

NO MENTION OF THE MECHANIC

AND THE CARPENTER’S SKILL

 

AND WHEN FIXED

NO MENTION OF THE MAINTENANCE

 

WHEN ONE IS REBORN BY WATER

AND THE SPIRIT

IS THAT THE END OF IT

 

WILL THE HORSE NEVER LOSE AN EAR

WILL THE STRAP ON THE GIRAFFE

NEVER BREAK

OR THE CALLIOPE

NEVER NEED TUNING

 

WILL THE PERSON

THE DAY AFTER BEING SAVED

STILL NEED TO SHAVE

 

WILL SHOELACES NEVER BREAK

OR TOAST BE BURNED

WILL HE NEVER WAKE UP GRUMPY

 

WILL HE NEVER

CRAVE A WOMAN NOR WEALTH

WILL HE NEVER BE TESTED BY HEALTH

 

MERRY GO ROUNDS NEED FIXING

AND SO DO WE

BEFORE THE LION

WILL CHASE THE TIGER

WHO CHASES THE HORSE

 

AND THE CALLIOPE FILLS THE AIR

 

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DEATH IN AN AMISH SCHOOLHOUSE

 

 

A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

RECENTLY RELEASED FROM CAMP

CAME ACROSS A THRONG

WAILING DOWN THE ROAD

 

HE INQUIRED

WHAT HAPPENED

WHAT CAUSED SUCH SORROW

 

HE WAS TOLD THAT A MAN HAD DIED

 

AND HE

WHO HAD WITNESSED

THOUSAND OF DEATHS

COULD NOT COMPREHEND

AND STARTED TO LAUGH

 

SO MUCH TURMOIL OVER ONE DEATH

WHERE WAS THE OUTCRY

WHEN SO MANY DIED

 

THE AMISH

WHO FOLLOW A BIBLICAL DICTUM

OF BEING IN THE WORLD

BUT NOT OF IT

 

SAY IN THEIR GENTLENESS

WE FORGIVE THE MURDERER

AS WELL WE SHOULD

AS WELL WE MUST

FORGIVE BUT NOT FORGET

 

WHAT HAS BROUGHT US TO THIS TERRIBLE PLACE

WHERE INNOCENT LAMBS ARE LED TO SLAUGHTER

HAVE WE GROWN IMMUNE TO DEATH

HAS THE ENEMY FINALLY WON

 

WE KILL CHRISTIANS

JEWS

MUSLIMS

HINDUS

BUDDHISTS

GAYS

OTHER RACES

OFTEN IN A NAME OF A GOD

 

BUT THE CHILDREN

SAFELY IN THEIR FATHER’S BOSOM

ACCEPTED AS THEY ARE

AS THEY NEVER WERE

SAY

MOURN OUR DEATH

. BE NOT PART OF THE KILLING MACHINE

THAT HAS CAUSED SO MUCH PAIN

 INSPIRED SO MANY KILLERS

 

MOURN OUR DEATH

 FORGIVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

AS YOU YOURSELF

WOULD WANT TO BE FORGIVEN

 

 BY SO DOING

THROW YOURSELF

INTO THE SPOKES OF THE MACHINE

AND STOP IT

 

 

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DIETRICH’S DEATH

 

 

 

FROM PRISON CELL TO KILLING GROUND

HE WENT PEACEFULLY

QUIETLY

AT EASE WITH HIMSELF

HIS GOD

 HIS ACTIONS

 

HE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

NOT EVERY ACTION WAS NOBLE

BUT EVENTUALLY

HE DID WHAT HE FELT HE HAD TO DO

AND HE FELT CONTENT

 

HE WALKED NAKED

TO THE DERISION OF THE GUARDS

YOU SAVED JEWS

SAVE YOURSELF

HE MUTTERED NOT A WORD

LIKE A LAMB BEING LED TO SLAUGHTER

LIKE A TRAITOR TO THE GALLOWS

BUT HE HAD WRITTEN

 

The church must fight evil in three stages:

The first was to question state injustice and call the state to responsibility;

The second was to help the victims of injustice, whether they were church members or not.

Ultimately, however, the church might find itself called "not only to help the victims who have fallen under the wheel, but to fall into the spokes of the wheel itself" in order to halt the machinery of injustice

 

 HE HAD ELECTED

TO BE A SPOKE

HIS MOTTO

FROM PROVERBS WAS

 

Open your mouth for the mute

 

 

HE REGRETTED THE SUBTERFUGE

REQUIRED FROM BEING A SPOKE

HE HAD WRITTEN

 

 

We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use

 

 

HE FELT CALM

AS HE WALKED

EMITTING PEACE

 

 

Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call

 

FOR GRACE DID NOT COME CHEAP

 

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate

 

 

THE CHURCH HAD SOLD ITS BIRTHRIGHT

IT WANTED CHEAP GRACE

 

The church is the church only when it exists for others. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not by dominating but by helping and serving

 

 

 IN HIS REFLECTIONS ON DEATH

HE WROTE

 

Whenever Christ calls us, his call leads us to death

 

AND

 

 

This is the end, for me the beginning of life

 

HE WOULD SAY TO US

 

Keep well

Enjoy the beautiful country

Spread joy around you

 And keep it to yourself as well

 

HE KEEP REPEATING

JOY

JOY

JOY

UNTIL THE ROPE TIGHTENED

 

 HE WAS GONE

 

 

FRANK A VOLLMER

 

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906-45

GERMAN MARTYR UNDER NAZISM

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Christian religious leader and participant in the resistance movement against Nazism. Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian, took part in the plots being planned by members of the Abwehr (Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually hanged following the failure of the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt

 

 

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ADVENT IN AUSCHWITZ

 

 

WHAT PASSING BELL

FOR THOSE WHO DIE LIKE CATTLE

 

SO SINGS THE POET WILFRED OWEN

OF SOLDIERS

KILLED

IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

 

WHAT PASSING BELL

FOR THOSE WHO DIE LIKE CATTLE

 

WHAT PASSING BELL

FOR THOSE WHO DIED

AT AUSCHWITZ

BERGEN-BELSEN

TREBLINKA

 

NOT THE ONLY DISASTER

TO HAVE HAPPENED

BUT THIS HAPPENED

IN MY LIFETIME

 

TO PEOPLE

SOME OF WHOM

BORE MY LAST NAME

 

DID NOT MESSIAH

ROAM THESE CAMPS

CRYING

THIS IS NOT RELIGION

BUT

HATRED

 

EACH ONE WHO DIES

DIES AS CHRIST

 

EACH ONE WHO DIES

IS A LILY IN THE FIELD

 

BELOVED BY ITS MAKER

 

EACH ONE WHO IS SHOT

GASSED

STARVED

HUNG

BURNED

CRIES OUT

WHERE IS YOUR RELIGION

 

THE JEWS CRY FOR A MESSIAH

 

CHRISTIANS CRY FOR A MESSIAH

 

PEOPLE WHO KNOW HIM NOT

CRY FOR A MESSIAH

 

BUT HE WILL NOT INTRUDE

 

HE MADE THE WORLD FOR US

GAVE US DOMINION

 

BECAUSE WE WOULD PREFER TO EAT THE FRUIT

HE GAVE US DOMINION

 

MAKE IT WORK

 

HE SAID

YOU WANTED DOMINION

 

MAKE IT WORK

 

I TREASURE

EVERY LILY IN THE FIELD

 

GARDENER

TEND YOUR FLOWERS

 

 

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TRIAL

 

THERE IS A LEGEND

PERHAPS IT’S TRUE

THAT A GROUP OF JEWS

ON THE EVE OF THEIR GASSING

AT AUSCHWITZ

PUT GOD ON TRIAL

IT WAS A JEWISH TRIAL

WITH THREE JUDGES

EVERY WITNESS

HAD TO BE BACKED UP

WITH ONE OR MORE

THE CHARGE WAS

THAT GOD HAD ABANDONED HIS PEOPLE

BROKEN HIS COVENANT

ALLOWED GENOCIDE

 

ONE WITNESS ASKED

WHY IS THIS SHOAH

DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SHOAHS IN OUR HISTORY

WHY SHOULD WE BLAME GOD

FOR WHAT CHRISTIANS

HAVE DONE TO US

FOR TWO THOUSAND YEARS

 

BUT THIS IS OUR SUFFERING

AND WE ARE SUFFERING NOW

WE FEEL GOD HAS ABANDONED US

IN THIS ANUS MUNDI

IN THIS PLACE WHERE THE DEVIL CELEBRATES

WHERE GOD SEEMS TO HAVE A DEAF EAR

TO HIS PEOPLES PLIGHT

 

ONE JUDGE SAID

HAVE YOU NO ANSWER

TO THESE ACCUSATIONS

 

BUT THERE WAS ONLY SILENCE

 

ANOTHER JUDGE SAID

DO YOU AGREE YOU MADE A FLAWED HUMANITY

THERE CAME A SOUND LIKE A MIGHTY WIND BLOWING

THE WIND CRIED GUILTY

 

THE THIRD JUDGE SAID

WHAT FURTHER NEED HAVE OF WITNESSES

HIS OWN VOICE HAS BETRAYED HIM

THEY JUDGED HIM GUILTY AS CHARGED

 

THEN AS ONE

SINCE IT WAS EVENING

THE RECITED THE SHEMA

HEAR O ISRAEL, THE LORD IS OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE

 

 

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