This is a poem for times when we hate, oppose, differentiate on the basis of fear and mistrust, and when we need people who will give credibility again to the God who is love. It was written by George Bruce, a Scottish poet, whose work is deeply coloured and shaped by the North East of Scotland. This poem about Martin Luther King is part lament, part hope and laced with both anger and sadness at the human capacity for waste and the churches' loss of credibility traced directly to the loss of a living and vitalising connectedness to Christ.
After the Death of Martin Luther King
"Little children it is for the last time."
and each time it was.
He spoke with his body and tongue
for love.
God knows why in our bad times.
Credibility had long since gone
that the churches had something to do with the
Christ,
that the bombs dropped for humanity
could not deceive any longer
even the Americans
But that he, such as he could for
the last
time
and again the
last time
for love of, for the possibility of
healing, holding together,
possibility of resurrecting
the dead God of
love
Walk.
The Lark sings Christ in the clean air.
O Memphis. O Jerusalem.
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