Look Into the Mirror
~ by ~
Kelly Kirkpatrick
Hatred hiding in its lair, dispensing grief and pain;
search your heart ~ does it dwell there ~ destructive and insane?
Why do we stay in hate's embrace and let it rule our lives,
sorting people race by race and hastening love's demise?
Can one among us give defense why we let hate control;
cloaked in veils of false pretense, to take so great a toll?
Why nurture such an evil force, destructive from the start,
its venom through our souls to course, and feed upon our hearts?
For those who hate themselves fall prey to what their victims face ~
the malice sent another's way reclaims its own birthplace.
Bearing when it does return the tears and pain it wrought
upon the ones who felt its burn, searing and white hot.
To torment and condemn the soul that spawned its very life ~
reducing it to less than whole and doomed to pay the price
exacted when we lay aside our duty to be true
unto ourselves to let love guide in all we say and do.
By causing others tears and pain, we are ourselves diminished ,
and looking back, find nothing gained when hateful lives are finished.
For those who feel they can't embrace the concept of a God,
are we still not ourselves disgraced when we on others trod?
If life goes not beyond this earth and here is where it ends,
is man not then from time of birth compelled to make amends?
And if you do embrace the One who's called our God on High,
did He not send His only Son that hate at last might die?
Even if Christ isn't seen as risen from the tomb,
God Himself our malice deems cause for the spirit's doom.
Did not our Lord in Heaven above denounce hate and condemn
the souls of those who find no love to offer fellow men?
For every tear we cause a foe ~ for all the pain we give ~
so, too, will we reap what we sow as long as we may live.
Is this , then, mankind's destiny ~ doomed for evermore?
To drown within a raging sea whose waves of loathing roar?
A sea of blood drawn by swords honed razor sharp with hate?
A mindless, blind, and lethal force permitting no escape?
How much closer will hate lure us, captive in its spell ,
toward the mouth of the abyss ~ the very gates of hell?
We can break free ~ it's not too late ~ to turn our backs at last,
on all the injury and hate that we've allowed to pass
between us and the ones for whom our hearts no love could find;
to step back from the brink of doom and save ourselves in kind.
Stand before the mirror of your conscience and your mind ~
search there for the light of love; in it forgiveness find ~
for wrongs perceived, transgressions borne, injustices that scarred ~
leaving you in pain and torn; the beauty of you marred.
With forgiveness comes sweet peace ~ the cycle breaks at last.
Reborn, made clean, from hell released ~ and hatred's tempest past.
Leaving in it's tortuous wake respite, joy, and calm ~
replaced with love that overtakes all past and future wrongs.
Think of what the world could be if mankind lost its fear
of from defenses breaking free and looking in that mirror!
Embracing all that it reflects ~ enabling us to love ~
forever hatred to reject and malice rise above!
It starts with you and me, my friend ~ for we, in turn, can show
the next ones how to make hate end, and find the peace we know.
Together we can rise above ~ be what we're meant to be;
loving others, being loved ~ from hatred's hold set free!
Look into the mirror with me ~ side by side we'll stand;
accept my heart's apology ~ take my extended hand.
Let us walk together on, out of loathing's night ;
into compassion's radiant dawn and friendship's healing light.
As human beings, peace must be our first and utmost goal;
for those who hate shall never see salvation of the soul.
The heights to which the spirit soars are limitless and vast;
when to his heart man love restores ~ we'll all be free at last!
~ by ~
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