Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

ARTS AND CULTURE

Daniel Berrigan's rebel spirit

  • 27 March 2017

 

So, I pray

 

So, I pray, under/

The sign of the world’s murder, the ruined son;

Why are you silent? — Daniel Berrigan

 

We, the citizens living in a time of conflict

our language is a menu to survive life

We have lost the seed of the soul on earth

Planting.

I harvest it.

To eat at the communal table.

 

Our heart becomes a cruel clock time.

Strong hitting the daily hours

A bare feet of a beggar system.

 

We refuse to see

Tears of Nauru is nothing

Then, smoking a cigar in the streets

Or drink a beer at the local pub.

Pain is a cold food like garbage left no compassion.

Compassion a prayer

we no longer have time to confess

Our soul and mind are too busy to run the daily sin

Compassion, bread and old wine

Waste in a temple to worship money and power.

 

 

Mankind has lost its root system thirst for happiness

Our bread is autumn leaf tossed into the branches as the bird dies.

They make wine from the waters of these rivers

suffering bloodied by the blood of Syrian children

Wine is the blood of indifference on the streets of Palestine

The wine is the blood of cruelty in Nauru ... why are you silent?

 

Therefore, I pray

As an old Communist

What I was crucified for torture in the iron bed;

nailed by electricity and blows to the House in 1985 Borgono

For those men who killed, raped and destroy our coexistence

In the name of God

They crucified our bodies as agony on earth

They poisoned our dream of common humanity.

Silence, 24 hours a communications satellite operated

Between us and God.

Pray is no longer a simple and humble action for peace

Now is a lost habit using a prepaid mobile phone

Instead of a plan for peace on earth

Against the multinational company that devours our will

I pray that the goodness of our hearts become actions.

And to resist the apathy of those who see homeless as an invisible thing at a park.

I pray one day on my street

we will have a feast of joy and community

empty streets and rubbish bins

standing trees as shade for our relationship.

Children giving flowers to strangers.

I pray with the broken dream of a child in the Nauru detention center

But at dawn it will open our hearts as a door of compassion.

And goodness will be a meal to share in this country.

 

I pray, Daniel Berrigan's rebel spirit

It can be a seed planted in the ground for peace

and be with us in our daily struggle for peace

 

In 1990 Juan Garrido-Salgado was granted asylum in Australia after fleeing Chile's