Issue 17: “I Dream A World”
"Poetry is a nightingale that sits in the darkness and sings"
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
Our mission at the Matthew 25 Initiative is to equip and sustain Anglicans serving alongside the vulnerable. The work of justice and mercy is often difficult work. Holding beauty and naming pain and hope is what M25i does well. Walter Brueggeman writes, "A poem utters the unutterable and thinks the unthinkable." In places of brokenness, we encounter Jesus. Join us in reflection and prayer through this series, "For the Soul."
We resume in this issue of “For the Soul” the best way we know how—with Easter. Eastertide is not over yet. After Ordinary Time, Easter is the longest season in the liturgical calendar, yet we so often only celebrate for just one day.
Not here! This poem by Langston Hughes speaks to the longing in all our hearts for a day when Shalom prevails. Easter is a foretaste of that kingdom Shalom that is captured in Scripture with imagery of feasts, trees with leaves for the healing of the nations, a lamb and child and wolf living in peace, when God wipes away every tear.
Note: Like all poetry, these words are meant to be read out loud at least two times through. So find a quiet room, or, better yet, step outside and declare these Easter truths with boldness!
I Dream A World
by Langston Hughes
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:19-20, ESV
WHY POETRY & M25i?
The Matthew 25 Initiative exists to equip and sustain Anglicans who are working across justice and mercy organizations and parishes. We see godly, wise, strong practitioners who are filled with purpose yet sometimes lacking ways to recharge. One small way M25i desires to refresh those in the trenches of broken places is by sharing poems offering beauty in words and imagery.
All poetry begins with a question—obvious or hidden. It looks at something that is curious, grievous, or mesmerizing. The poet writes and offers readers a specific moment to carefully consider, and if the poet is a master of the written language, they help us purify and refine our common language. Language is so important to preserve and get right, because it’s how we understand, work with, and serve one another.
In the work of justice and mercy, we are threatened with burnout when we lose our ability to see the way things could be. Holding a space for poetry makes way for prophetic imagination, or a way of thinking about what needs mending. When we pay careful attention to a poem in a community, we learn to pay closer attention together and to one another.
Join us as we allow poetry to help shape us, giving us space to deal with our grief, hold back cynicism, and hold onto tenderness. In the space of words carefully chosen and edited down to only what you need, we train ourselves to see moments more clearly, and more fully.
