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At Twenty

Having lived for ten long years,

Seen ten more Januaries to ten Decembers

All of absolutely equal lengths

I found myself obscured in forest depths

That to remember, it makes me afraid,

Of the darkness, of what’s next. But I’ll aid

Your mind to travel where i once trod,          

This path that death freely rode

Where the falcon can’t hear the falconer,

Where the puppet stares at the puppeteer

And blood flows like it is a mighty river

Roaring, showing that it’s not a life giver.

Back to the journey that i promised to tell

Hopefully to its end, to its tail

If the muses refresh my memory:

Suddenly saw a variegated animal staring at me

A she-wolf ‘twas, with so much hungering,

Ravenously devouring my whole being

With just a look, aye just a mere look

And it made my whole body shook.

Banishing me from the suns light

To run to a little cave with affright

It roared like a lion to me

As i ran deep into this cave, with uncertainty

As to whether after me it would come

Or its hungering would calm.

Deep into the recess of the cave

Saw i eyes thirsting for me to have:

Unaware of where to go i ran

Till saw i a light where the river turn,

To pour its waters down the earth,

So jumped i to escape this death,

Whose eyes had already torn me apart.

Anonymous

Wars create empires: wars destroy empires,

So this I give unto you my honourable sires

Show more love than you receive

And surely alone you will never grieve

My latter poet says, “Little learning

(Can of course be) a dangerous thing.”

So drink deep from the sacred spring.

Be partly mad. Follow the counsel o’ Bacon

Surely, you shall get the crown.

Condemn not books for study’s good.

                                                          ‘Tis true

That nature is art unknown mostly by you

Refrain your tongue from evil:

By always following your will.

Think, weigh before you utter

(So that most often you do not err)

Since words are the keys to hearts of men.

Seek peace and pursue it most often.

Most important, stay far away

From stupid n’ profound discussions.

 

OF GOD AND RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY

Recently, I was involved in an argument where someone referred to me as “an atheist.” Do they know the meaning of the term atheist? Well, it originates from two Latin words ‘a’ and ‘theos.’ The former means ‘without’ while the latter means ‘god.’ Thus, to call someone an atheist is to say that they are without god, which actually means that they do not believe in the existence of God.

          I would like to consider myself as a deist and not an atheist. According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, a deist (is someone who does) believe in the existence of God, unfortunately he does not believe that he takes part in our universe. That is why I like to tell my friends the story of the blind god.

          The analogy states that there was a blind god. One hot afternoon, he went to the river. While at the river, he took mud and started moulding some creatures. These creatures were like human beings-able to think and ask questions. As they started exploring the environment, they realized that they had a creator: they began to worship him though he was oblivious of their existence. Later, these creatures realized that their god was blind, oblivious of their existence. They stopped worshipping him and begun to do as they pleased. Soon it was getting late and the god returned what he had made back to the water before he went home. This makes me to ask the question, is our god blind, oblivious of existence? What is the use of a religion?

          Karl Marx says that religion is an opium of the people. It is used as a means to rationalize inequalities. Nay, it prevents the proletariats from taking arms against the bourgeoisies. In Africa, the colonizers used it to steal the fertile land. They told the Africans to close their eyes so that they pray. When they opened their eyes the fertile lands was gone.

          About two thousand years ago, a power arose and colonized Europe. With it came a new religion called Christianity. Later the entire Europe adopted this religion. In the 1300s, there was a religious bigotry: Christians killed others whom they considered as heathens. Geoffrey Chaucer writes in The Canterbury Tales that,

Once with the Bey of Balat, doing work

For him against another heathen Turk

Geoffrey Chaucer is describing a soldier who helped a ruler of Turkey (Bey of Balalt) to fight another who was not Christian. At this time, Christianity was under threat from Islamic religion. According to them, anyone who did not profess their religion was a heathen.