Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 318
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IMMERSE
•
POETS
I served as eyes for the blind
and feet for the lame.
I was a father to the poor
and assisted strangers who needed help.
I broke the jaws of godless oppressors
and plucked their victims from their teeth.
“I thought, ‘Surely I will die surrounded by my family
after a long, good life.
For I am like a tree whose roots reach the water,
whose branches are refreshed with the dew.
New honors are constantly bestowed on me,
and my strength is continually renewed.’
“Everyone listened to my advice.
They were silent as they waited for me to speak.
And after I spoke, they had nothing to add,
for my counsel satisfied them.
They longed for me to speak as people long for rain.
They drank my words like a refreshing spring rain.
When they were discouraged, I smiled at them.
My look of approval was precious to them.
Like a chief, I told them what to do.
I lived like a king among his troops
and comforted those who mourned.
“But now I am mocked by people younger than I,
by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my
sheepdogs.
A lot of good they are to me—
those worn-out wretches!
They are gaunt from poverty and hunger.
They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.
They pluck wild greens from among the bushes
and eat from the roots of broom trees.
They are driven from human society,
and people shout at them as if they were thieves.
So now they live in frightening ravines,
in caves and among the rocks.
They sound like animals howling among the bushes,
huddled together beneath the nettles.
They are nameless fools,
outcasts from society.
29:15–30:8
