Skip to main content

By the Gate Called Beautiful - Poem

THERE'S A BEGGAR sitting by the gate called Beautiful,
And he needs more than just silver and gold;
The priests scoff by,
The rich walk by,
The people throng by,
The children ask why
This beggar's sitting by the gate called Beautiful.

There's a preacher coming to the gate called Beautiful,
And he ain't got any silver or gold;
But, he won't lie,
And, he won't shy;
For, he's the kinda guy
Who'll just stop by
This beggar sitting by the gate called Beautiful.

A priest gnarls by,
"Wretched beggars defacing the Temple!"
A vendor calls by,
"Come, you fella! Got any change of coins?"
A youth rocks by,
"Hey dude! Got good style ha; keep on rockin'!"

The beggar's not listenin',
He's eyes are on the preacher transfixed;
He stretches out his palm for alms;
The preacher grasps his arm,
"Silver and gold have I none," he says
But what I have I give to you;
In the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
Rise up and walk, I say to you!"

Boy, he jumps up and dances,
Cries, "God's power touched my bones!"
The crowd cast baffled glances,
"Wasn't he a cripple a while ago!"

What a pulpit, O Master Carpenter,
You grant a fisherman who left his boat!
See how he blazes one fiery rhetoric,
One sermon wins 5000 souls!

The priests get angry,
The captain is mad,
They run down in hurry,
With Sadducees sad;
They all are sayin',
"What happened's very bad!"

They put them in prison,
They drag them to court,
They warn them "Listen,
"Don't ever preach this sort!"

Ah, don't show them your paperguns,
They ain't some timid blokes;
They've seen their Master risen
From the dead to die no more!

Such were some events one day by the gate called Beautiful,
A beggar got more than just silver and gold;
The priests still cry,
The rich still sigh,
The people stop by,
The children ask why
There ain't any beggar by the gate called Beautiful!

© Domenic Marbaniang, July 2011.
Labels:

Comments

  1. hempJuly 23, 2011 at 8:01 PM

    9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Placebo and the Philosophy of Mind and Matter in Drug Research

A placebo is a non-therapeutic substance administered under the camouflage of medication to deceive patients into believing that they are receiving medications; this done solely for psychological and not for physiological effects. Placebo may usually be used to compare its effects with the effects of other drugs in drug research. Let's take the case of an experiment that tries to establish whether a particular drug, say to treat weariness, is genuine or merely has the effects of a placebo. Suppose 20 candidates are chosen for this experiment. 10 are given the drug and the rest are put on a placebo while they are told that the placebo is a genuine medication. They need to make sure that the deception is well carried on for the success of the experiment. If both the groups make similar improvements after taking the treatments, the new drug seems to only function as a placebo in effect. The basic hypothesis of the placebo raises the question of mind over matter. Of course, this pushes...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Theology? Its Divisions with Short Descriptions

Published in REVIVE, May 2012 (Malayalam Edition) A simple and literal definition of “theology” would be “the science of divine things”. It comes from two Greek words theos meaning “God” and logia meaning “discourse or speech”. In modern times, it is the stream of knowledge that differentiates the secular pursuit of knowledge from the sacred one because of its starting point: all secular studies begin with reason and experience while theology begins with faith. The starting point for all extra-theological studies is the world (Latin: saeculum); the starting point for theology is the Word of God. So, while one may say that theology is the study of God, the factual definition would be that theology is the science that rationally pursues the understanding of the self-revelation of God in the Scriptures. It would be interesting to note that many of the universities had originally begun as seminaries and theology was once known as the Queen of Sciences. However, with the dawn of theAge of E...
5 comments
Read more

Reliability, Predictability, and Paul the Octopus

Paul the Octopus has recently become very famous after his predictions for Germany and Spain during the World Cup 2010 came right. The 100% accuracy tag distinguishes him from any other diviner who had attempted a prediction during the World Cup. There were responses and reactions from various people including sportsmen, statesmen, and mathematicians. Whatever, the use of Paul has demonstrated once again that mankind's search for an extra-temporal, psychic foresight has not quelled through the historical calendar returning a decade over this millennium. The question before us is can such predictions as those of Paul be counted on as reliable (in other words, can they be seriously taken as true)? The mathematicians have plumped for chance. It's all a matter of probability, they say ( BBC News ). However, the argument of chance in itself is weak. The mathematics of chance will calculate that the probability of Paul being right seven times out of seven is 1/128. But, the conclusi...
3 comments
Read more