Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MY LITANY, by BLANCHE C. HOWLETT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MY LITANY, by                    
First Line: O lord, deliver me from snobbery
Last Line: Reality, existence, knowledge, bliss.
Subject(s): Prayer; Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)


O Lord, deliver me from snobbery,
Big I and little you, the safety
Device to hide inferiority.
Give me the understanding now to see
Divinity in all, the woman of
The streets, diseased beggars in filthy rags,
And parasites, -- the shunned of all the earth.
What is reality? A man-made God
A person, limited, residing in
A place in space? O omnipresent God,
These man-made concepts fail to satisfy;
For what is matter, energy and mind,
But modes of motion, God made manifest
To carnal relative humanity.
Material man sees matter; Christ sees God.
We see charwomen -- many laborers --
Exhaust their energy for pittances,
No provision made for their old age.
Their unattractive work despised by snobs
Whose fleshy tabernacles loll. Their lives
Made pleasant by the toil of laborers.
My country's government, whose science is
The law of God made manifest upon
The earth, will see old age insurance passed,
Reforestation change denuded lands
To scenes of beauty. Planting berries, fruits,
And crops of various kinds will furnish work
For unemployed. The army and navy's knowledge,
Gained at government expense, in times
Of peace will train the underpriviledged youth
Until upon the human consciousness
A true democracy will dawn. The goal
For each, at-one-ment with the infinite
Reality, existence, knowledge, bliss.





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