Author: poetryfest

Was Jesus sent only to nice people
Those accepted by their own as like us
To make life on our own terms easier?
Or was he sent to the bothersome
The dirty, the poor, the troublemakers
To those by their own people discarded?

The untouchable lepers Jesus touched
Those shunned for their contagious uncleanness
Being made to warn others they were coming
Because their very presence could defile
Jesus approached and by his touch made clean
They were cleansed, and Jesus not made dirty.

The poor woman by twelve years in her blood
Defiled, so that none could be in her place
To touch or even sit where she had sat
Snuck up to Jesus so she could touch him
She touched and was healed, fully restored
Jesus gave her his peace without reproof.

Jesus received the outpouring of love
Given him by the immoral woman
In front of the Pharisee who despised
All of her kind, but did what he would not
Bathing Jesus’ feet with perfume and tears
Forever is her kindness remembered!

In that foreign woman from Phoenicia
To whose people Jesus had not been sent
Who asked healing for her afflicted son
Knowing that the Jews saw her as a dog
Jesus saw faith greater than that of all
His own people, and granted her request.

Jesus’ people had hated the whole race
Of the woman at the well a long time.
Samaritans returned the Jews’ hate, too.
And the woman was an adulteress.
But the woman found the water of life
Jesus gave her to share with her people.

Levi the tax collector, who was shunned
And hated for defrauding his people
That same Levi Jesus called away from
His tax booth to follow him for three years
Taught him to follow as his disciple
And gave Matthew the book we all still read.

With tax collectors who for the hated
Romans robbed their own people
Jesus sat and ate and offered pardon
A place with him for those who believed him
And to him turned from seeking their profit
So he took their shame before the people.

Jesus was himself by his own discarded
Hung naked on a cross where all his shame
All my shame all the world might clearly see
Yet he kept for the thief who believed him
Though for his own bloody crime put to shame
This day, the hope of seeing paradise.

And, Oh! That murderous Pharisee Saul
Caused so many saints to be put to death
Surely he is one all of us should shun!
To that same Saul came the risen Jesus
Appeared visibly in all his glory
Accepting Paul as one of his Apostles!

As one also shunned as too much trouble
Lord, teach me to comfort the discarded
To take on myself your shame, not my own
Touching in love the hated and the shamed
Those shunned because they don’t seem just like us
Or, like me, they others too much bother.

© 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson

A guide used long ago by many in the church
Tells me of people with needs of different kinds
All these my Lord for my good in my world has placed:
The one who has things and accolades that tempt me,
My neighbor, and the one who my soul and heart hurts;
Those I would kill with my words and those I would hate;
The ones whose bad and harmful deeds I must reprove;
The ones for whose growth into full life I must pray;
The ones I shall love more than I love my own life.

For these people I never need labor to search
As to me all these the Lord in His wisdom binds
In them I will find his will for me now is based
Because of them to learn more like my Lord to be.
The ones who in me his abundant love alerts
Following its voice both of us to elevate
That those who see may that same love in me approve
And some may therefore near to him in their love stay
And thus, with us be made one with the Lord in life.

There will be those whose wealth and notoriety tempt
Me to want what they have with a greedy desire
To envy them and to speak of them jealously
To seek to be like them because it seems that theirs
Is the way to money, acclaim and true success.
Oh, how much I often wish to run after them!
But I must not! To be content with what God gives
I must show them the grace to keep all that is theirs
While I for love of them keep the Lord who is mine.

My neighbor is one who needs me, none is exempt
Let not my neglect of some prove me a liar!
But reach out to each fearlessly and zealously
Like Jesus’ good Samaritan who, when he nears
The injured man who his people would never bless
By love overcame all his people’s hate to come
And does what the religious men would not: forgives
The enmity of the victim’s people and shares.
In the story of his love God’s love still does shine!

What can I say of the one who deeply hurts me?
Who hurts my body or takes away what is mine
Or, worse, violates my heart and injures my soul?
The ancient text counsels me “you shall bear no grudge.”
The one who hurt me so much remains my neighbor
One God has placed in my life to show me Himself
One to whom I am still to show the love of God
Though I must ask God to give wisdom to know how
My grudge must not cut off God’s love for them in me.

By some I am told I must now to hate be free
My friends and all the world say I must have a spine
The strength to hate those we tell ourselves wrongly stole
Our peace, our friends, our things, or those who us do judge.
But the counsel is clear, though it takes great labor
“Hate no one,” it says, as I must remind myself
When fear and rage me to contempt and hate do prod
Instead to ask God and work with the Spirit now
That we may together set free His love in me.

Hurtful words to my lips come all too easily!
Sometimes carelessly, sometimes plunged like a dagger
Into the heart of a friend of God, beloved
Or recklessly as gossip shot into the soul
Of one with whom I quarrel not, to make myself
Look good by degrading one made in God’s image.
I too know the pain of being spoken against.
Those in my world who speak evil I must still love
Speak well of them and not seek to retaliate!

Some in my world may need reproof, said lovingly.
Things that cause harm, errors in which they still stagger,
Must be set right by those by whom they are well-loved
But faced gently, by those who share with them the goal
To take the life of Jesus in them off the shelf
And let Him be seen by others now, in this age
His grace and love to all those they love well dispensed
That we together will show power from above
And the power of evil among us negate.

Some will need my prayers so that their needs will be
Met from the great treasure the Lord has given us.
Some needs we can see, but I must never neglect
That our need to know Him better we cannot see
To know His power, and the full depth of His love
That we, his people, are His abundant treasure
In our oneness he shares his abundant riches
Within each of us with others in His body
That His love will govern each in all of their life.

Only then do I see those given to teach me
The most how I am to be like my Lord Jesus.
They may not be friends; some may despise and reject
As some of His own nailed him to the cruel tree!
He gives me some to love as he did, from above
Although they made His pain their source of great pleasure,
He forgave, knowing some would join in His riches.
The one who teaches me most about His body:
The one I shall love more than I love my own life!

________________________________________

Explanation: The Didache (the “teaching”) is a short text — it fits within five pages of ordinary book text — that was written by an unknown author most likely sometime in the last quarter of the First Century, C.E. It was written as a treatise or “church order” on Christian ethics and church observances. It is not included in the Canon of Scripture, but nevertheless contains some interesting, useful and even beautiful ideas. My poem was inspired by this passage from the end of the second chapter, in which the last line appears to tie together all of the ethical statements that precede it:
“You shall not covet the things of your neighbor;
You shall not swear;
You shall not bear false witness;
You shall not speak evil;
You shall bear no grudge;
You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbor;
You shall not hate anyone;
But some you shall reprove;
And concerning some you shall pray;
And some you shall love more than your own life.”
Didache (Tr. Roberts) on earlychristianwritings.com.

Poem © 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson.

Of what value is my reputation
If it is nothing but an illusion?
A lie, a falsehood crafted with care
To “sell” something to the world out there?

It surely cannot be my place
To create myself an unreal face
To “sell” myself to those who matter
When you, Lord, are my Creator!

And should I “sell” myself to you
The One who knows all that’s true?
You already see all that is within
All that will be or has ever been!

So what use is it to live a lie
To hide the good or what is awry?
Show all things that in me abide
And what is seen let You decide!

© 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson

As a city, my heart recalls the cataclysm
That shook and shattered it to its deepest foundation
Even so, it may someday again find its rhythm
Yet a new normal, not the old, in its station.

The city knows where it’s dangerous to rebuild
The street that was here but now is moved over there
The places of old dreams that cannot be fulfilled
Where new growth replaces old ruins, it’s only fair!

The city hopes what is raised up anew will be
Better, yet cannot be sure in its quiet moments
As it is all for the young, and can barely see
My epitaph among the temblor’s monuments.

I can never expect the young to want to seek
The things that out of my heart I now want to pour
Yet old-timers most softly and wistfully may speak
Of their world before the Great ‘Quake of ‘Twenty-Four!

© 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson.
bit dot ly/m/Forgiveness

In my Father’s house are many mansions, Jesus said
But why many, if all who follow Jesus are one?
Should there not be only a single mansion instead
Where we can at last see our unity fully won?

Can it be even in Heaven we’ll not see
Fully the unity he bought and longs to bestow
Because in separate mansions we’ll protected be
From those of his children who we despised here below?

Rejecting friend, is it in God’s justice possible
That I will miss the joy of reconciliation
In Heaven, that God will not be held responsible
For your pain from our eternal association?

Jesus is my friend, my eternity is secure
And I am confident you will find the same reward.
But by offending you so greatly, ought I now fear
Living in Heaven’s solitary confinement ward?

© 2025 by Ian Bruce Johnson

O summer night of dreary dreams
Spineless creatures do sneaky things.
O but upon a midnight prairie
I looked upon the stars a many
O I felt the arms of someone merry
I really hoped but on the contrary
O Wonderful world of spiteful treats
Smiles a god of devil’s deceits
O But how a wonderful why
To dream the touch of a lover by
O But creeping slowly ready to go
Were feelings of desire about to overthrow
O It felt so wrong It felt so right

Forget it all there was something more here tonight.

Voice Over by Val Cole

Visual Design by Adam Bilyea

Produced by Matthew Toffolo

——-
POEM:

From the first hello to the most recent goodbye,
I can’t hide my smile when you look in my eyes.

A sweet whisper-like melody,
Every word sings quixotically.

Sideways glances from across the hall,
And all the times I can recall
Of anxiously hoping to run into you,
And wondering if you ever had a clue…

You had me from the first day.
These words were once so hard to say.
I just hoped you’d find it a surprise
That I can convey a lot with my eyes.

There is something about the way you are
That makes it difficult for me to stay far.
And even though I always poke fun at you,
Know it’s a unique way to show my love is true.

So take my hand and twirl me around,
And we’ll lose ourselves in the stars that surround.
And even though you hate to dance,
Always know you’re worth the chance

Lisa Sagardia Shapiro

Voice Over by Val Cole

Visual Design: Adam Bilyea

Produced by Matthew Toffolo

——-

POEM;

Hotel Confessional, by Alicia Daggs

As a girl I wanted to be

A movie beauty queen

The star in a centerfold

From a pin up magazine

Down in the ditches

I was raised up so clean

But things I learned on the internet

So obscene

Some things I found out

I wish I never knew about

But, if you please

We can play cat and mouse

In a blissed out fantasy

Just between you and me

I got a feeling

Someone’s gonna bleed

In this hotel confessional

There’s no room for privacy

We’re so close

Skin to skin

Bedroom eyes and bloody knees

And if you confess your sins to me

I’ll show you just how much it means

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

It has been destined for you to be with me, all through eternity!

You will be the one to kiss my buns, there’s no doubt; that we will have lots and lots of fun!

It wíll be my pleasure to wine and dine you, but first; I must find you!

Yesterday, the Holy Spirit put in my spirit to do a google search on recent photos of Debbye Turner

Then when I found you on Instragram, I became soooooóoo hsppy! (Like a little boy with a new toy)!

We have both been set free from the curse!

We will soon have an Anointed Ministry that will minister to the hurtíng/lost souls, you’ll c

This poem originated 30 years ago, but today He àdded these words; just like Him (increase)!

Ambassador4Christ, Mr. Q

Performed by Val Cole

—

POEM:

A sea of people
around me, and
yet I have never
felt so alone.

Everyone keeps
surviving, as if,
my entire world
is not crumbling
before me.

How do I live
in the rubble,
where you no
longer exist?

A sea of people
around me,
and I am
drowning,

but everyone
knows I can
swim.

Air escapes
my lungs.
Water fills
within.

A weight so
heavy on my
sternum; I
am sure it
will fracture.

No one
save me.
I want to see
you again.