Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHAT IF, by GERTRUDE B. GUNDERSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHAT IF, by                    
First Line: What if we carved truth in the graveyards?
Last Line: There was one who did—he died on the cross.
Subject(s): Jesus Christ - Suffering & Sacrifice


What if we carved truth in the graveyards?
Would the dead arise
And push up the stones defaming their bones,
And in pained surprise
Demand we explain why their peace was undone
... But the dead may sleep—our conventions hold
That naught but good of their lives be told.

What if we wrote truth in the press?
Would the public read
If we should sometime delete all the crime?
Would headlines recede
If life, sound, unspoiled, were the news broadcast?
As a people do we a press maintain
For national good or for personal gain?

What if we preached truth in the pulpit?
Would the theme be fresh?
Would the world crowd in as it flocked to him
Who was God made flesh?
Would they know the truth, that it makes them free?
... Would the church be aggrieved as on that day
When Christ years ago pointed out the way?

What if we chose truth as our lodestar?
Could we find the way?
Is the truth for you just what I must do?
Could we spend our day
In blazing the road for timorous feet,
Through loneliness, scorn and personal loss?
There was One who did—he died on the cross.





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