The Cure of Troy
by Seamus Heaney
Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt, and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyeard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and birth cry
Of new life at its term.
It means that once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
2 comments:
Hi Elizabeth--I recently listened to your ACU lectures on iTunes recently and have been wanting to get in touch with you. I'd like to get a copy of the handout you distributed to share with my church. Would you be able to email or mail it to me? Please write back to me at patrickhalbrook@gmail.com. Thank you, and thank you for your powerful message!
Hey Liz: Karis here. I hear Sarah is in town for the Bible lectures this week. I hope to stop by when she speaks and to see you there!
Post a Comment