Dogma plagues our human existence
Erasing common decency–trading it for war .
Souls bought and sold because of inspired word;
Thrown to the wolves by those in sheep’s clothing.
I do not hate religion, I do not deny its inalienable right
Nor do I deny the good which it contains.
Yet zealots pass judgment in the Name of their God–
destroying the lives of others…this I despise.
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Raised to live in fear.
Plagued with being fallible
Before loving God.
Should I live in mortal doubt
Afraid of retribution?
I prefer to thrive;
Not in guilt, but blissful joy
Trusting God’s wisdom.
Ashamed of my sins–perhaps,
Though faithful in spirits grace.
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Were I cast out to sea, adrift…in a small boat,
Floating…gliding up and down over diamond-head swells;
Bathing under a star soaked sky,
Will I be seen by God?
~
Were I crawling, dirty…clothes worn ragged,
Parched…flesh burning, blistered and bleeding;
Boiled under a hellish sun,
Will I be saved by God?
~
Were I bedridden, covered in sores…begging for death,
Terminal…no hope, living in utter despair;
A slave to this mortal body,
Will I be spared by God?
~
Were I to pass…peacefully or in torment,
Eyes closed…draped in white as I was at birth;
No more a victim to my earthly form,
Will I be welcomed by God?
~
For all the wrongs I’ve done, all the sins I have notched,
The list is long, written in stone, my autobiography;
My claim on humanity not unlike others,
Will I be forgiven by God?
~
Will I be seen…
Will I be saved…
Will I be spared…
Will I be welcomed…
Will I be forgiven…
By God?
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A lifetime spent forging ahead,
Ever closer to the raging river.
Tumultuous and wrought with fear
I approach the fjord fraught with peril.
I squint to spy a shore
The bank far too distant to see.
What awaits–Oh that is the question
Asked before, asked again eternally.
Its in the book of Testament Old and New,
Torah, Pistis Sophia, Koran among the few.
Through the ages told to look, to believe
And yes! Ye shall find what ye need,
But it is not so clear, nor has it ever been,
I can’t know what awaits on that far off shore.
Trusting there is more than what I’ve seen,
Like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s night
I must trust, I must believe through faith I will live,
For without what is left, but a story with a tragic end.
This cannot, must not be, never created nor destroyed,
I have been forever and will be forever more.
Mortal science has proven the mystics of yore,
There must be life,yes–I must live when I cross the river
As spirit abandons the bodies mortal core.
With each step I take, another step closer,
Sooner than later I will know, I will see what awaits;
Try as we may we cannot escape our human fate.
A fate long sealed by Adam’s rib named Eve
What else can we do, but trust and believe
That all is not lost, that living is not futile,
Lest we spend our days in tears as we grieve.
I refuse! I will not grieve nor give in to hopelessness,
This by the grace of God I confess
To waste not one breathing moment in sadness
Instead to walk in the ways of gladness
‘Til my time on earth is through.
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Fraught with danger this daily walk,
As hand-in-hand we battle the foe.
Through foolish acts and foolish talk,
Into the darkness hence we go.
Faith–What faith we question still,
As answers yield no answers forth.
On hands and knees we climb the hill;
The devil tempts our mortal worth.
O’ the struggle, eternal test,
We try yet fail more oft’ than not.
Attempt as we may to do our best
It ends in sin and soul filled rot.
Yet for all our faults and feelings of loss
We’re assured of life through death on the cross.
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
I lay prone before God,
Am I worthy of the gift he offers?
I have done nothing to deserve his graces,
His mercy, his saving, especially from myself.
I do not change, I am sinful as I was born to be,
As we were born to be by our father and mother.
Adam and Eve cursed me to a lifetime of sin,
Simply by their failure to obey,
Failure to obey their hunger and thirst for understanding.
This is where it all began,
The anger, the hatred, the intolerance,
This is where the eternal struggle began,
Of good and evil, Heaven and Hell, I bow before it,
Afraid of what I am and what I will become if I fail to comply.
I wander from one phase of mortal understanding to another
Though in the end, I find that I understand nothing.
I am but a grain of sand embodied in ignorance,
Destined to wander this earth searching for answers
Answers that have laid dormant within me,
But I was too frail to see.
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Vociferous me
Religion and politics
Destined to divide
Still answers are illusive
Therefore I must question on
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Soul searching…deep and bloody,
A soul pure in its ignorance, stunted in cynicism
Bleeds to dull the pain.
This pain is not physical–it is spiritual;
Like thirst, it is teased by the eternal mirage.
Crawling through the sand, it sifts through my fingers
As sand through an hourglass is bound to do,
Parched, I search on, confused.
History held the answer…their answer for their time,
Passed on, an amalgam of what the past held true.
Each thought they were right, that they knew,
Yet they knew no more than their predecessors,
Just as I know no more than mine.
So I hunt, swallowing pieces of the puzzle;
Never sure of the truth,
Always one piece short.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
I question God;
Not the existence of,
But the singularity of his being.
Might We not be God I ask,
Creators of this world, this reality;
All of us, the collective,
Our spirits, our hearts, our souls
Forming order out of this presumed chaos,
Though perhaps it is not chaos at all,
Rather a mysterious perfection.
It diminishes not our desire for God
Nor should it be thrown into oblivions pit.
Instead it should be sought after with fervor.
Where though, lies the question.
Religion begs us to look towards the heavens,
Drawing truth from books transcribing God through man,
Placing faith in idols and symbols,
Traveling down another’s path,
Still answers are as void as those of the godless.
Perhaps our quest has been misguided,
Perhaps we have been intimate with God all along
But did not recognize him when spoken too.
Blinded by our perceptions of the outside reality,
Ignorant to our inside spirituality for fear of damnation,
We look for what we already may already have…
I ask, couldn’t we be God?
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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
You look on appalled and concerned
Just as I look at you.
Maybe he’s out for walk,
Bird watching,
Enjoying the sun or the weather.
Oh no, that can not be,
We haven’t seen him before!
Where did he come from?
Where is he going?
He must be up to no good.
Casing the joint,
Looking to rob us,
Rape our women,
Set fire to our homes,
Surely he must be a criminal,
He does not belong here!
But why incredulous?
He doesn’t look like us,
His type doesn’t live in this neighborhood.
He’s the wrong color,
Certainly he must be muslim
Or gay,
Or dealing drugs to our kids
And hates this country.
This is the twenty-first century,
Haven’t we moved beyond our prejudice?
Shamefully…
No!
Hateful glances say no,
Joblessness says no,
Homelessness says no,
Hearts and minds say no,
Ignorance still exists,
The year,
The decade,
The century matters not.
In correctness some bite their tongues,
But their medieval minds dictate.
Thoughts expressed through actions,
Conversations held in the shadows,
The like-minded nodding in approval.
So little have we progressed,
Claims of enlightenment ring hollow.
Baseless assumptions poisoning us,
Fear used as justification,
Repetition brainwashing the ignorant.
When will it end,
This perpetuation of hate,
Cloaked as patriotism, religion,
Our constitutional right?
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 