Belief
Gilli Smyth


I

I will give thanks for life
every day of my life
and sing songs of joy
to be blessed with life

I will follow her path -
the rightness of her doings
floods my heart with happiness -
all this she has done

She has given me belief in myself
so I no longer fear
the emptiness within

She has sustained me
in moments of great anxiety
because I know there is more
than vexing routines

She gives me the enthusiasm
to transform my daily life
by making the negative positive

She has presented me
with dangerous people
and shown that
goodness and kindness
can overwhelm sadness and greed


II

Little children
shall be respected
and listened to
as people in their own right -
and animals as wise beasts
and teachers
No longer oppressed
by cruelty and sorrow

All the beauty I have seen
in the darkness of the night
shall be set out on her table
for all to feast on

I shall never feel a stranger
in a foreign land
because I will see her
in every person

She is our mother
but she is our father
and our brother
and our son too

She will not allow
strife between us
because of the shape
of our bodies
but reinforce the love
in our hearts

She will help us restore
all the good things
that are female
that we almost
don't believe in anymore -
because they have been so putdown

Let us augment each other
and our brothers
and not diminish
each other at all

I will praise you
for being my brother
and the doing will
take care of itself
And for my sister
the doing will show
the fullness of your being

I will try to carry
her message everywhere
but if I am weak and afraid
she will lie down with me
till I can go on

I may not succeed
to love all the strange
and different kinds
of people I meet

But I will never stop trying

I know this is now her work
and I will never doubt it again


III

I will not be overshadowed
by other people's sadness
but help them to change it
into a learning process

I hope that everywhere
I will leave people happier
for having been with them
And try to eliminate
bringing them sadness
through my own negativity

All that I do
I do through her
and I am blessed
that she considers me
a good enough vehicle

All I can do is polish
the lamp of myself for her
and this will always
be my duty and my work

I will use what she has given me
of beauty of face and body
to enchant and
make enjoyable the moment

I will greet people like a song
and a paean of praise
especially on the telephone

So that hello Dr Rubenstein
becomes a hymn of joy
and I will smile into his sad soul
so that the afternoon
will seem a little brighter

She has helped me
to make people feel loved
even though I may often fail

Glory be to the shine
on the afternoon telephone
and the moment in the milk bar
and belief in miracles

And that the improbable best
can always happen -
she has made me feel worthy of it
in order not to reject her blessings

She helps me
not to become complacent
by always providing
the unexpected twist

All my experiences
harsh though they were
were teachings
to learn true compassion
and abandon one-upmanship


IV

My heart
has seen the glory
of her coming

She does not need
ceremonies or rituals
but enters directly
into our hearts and is

She has no secret knowledge
and ordained priests -
her holy book
is the blade of grass

Her wisdom is
in the eyes of a child -
her cathedrals are
the tallest trees

The lore of the elders
is in the beginning
and we all know it

Justice is the living out
what we have done so we learn

She softens this
wherever she can
so that harshness
is as small as it can be

Her law strikes gently
to stop us hurting each other
and to avoid punishment
wherever possible

And the offender
restores the offended
by his own hand

She will help to make the earth
a paradise around us
so that the hell of unhappiness
will gradually disappear

And we will not
encourage it at all
by believing in it
and looking at violent porn videos
But hope they will become
more and more unpopular
as people respect women
and enjoy their lives more

We will not go half-heartedly
to politics or bullfights
but see them as naked aggression
and ameliorate them

We will dispassionately show
what harm patriarchs
and bigoted church leaders
can do us

Without judgment -
let their actions be
as fully seen and realised
as all hypocrisy everywhere

For our mother
who art in every mother
father child son and daughter

Glory be to all these realities
based on goodness
and kindness for ever

AMEN