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fat priests: the moon

little guilts and luscious lies
sweetmeats of imagination:
gifts for globulous priests
fat bellied, heavy men

sin eaters

banquet of imperfections
heralded by faith
chocolate box of judgement.
I watch the moon rise.

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Please note that I have not posted this poem to disrespect anyone religious. My dear friend was a Catholic, I am a pagan, and we used to debate religion and philosophy endlessly and heatedly. Since he died I still talk to him in my head, saying, "See! how can your god exist if such and such can happen..." and he would say 'Jenifer, you are wrong, you have no soul...' He spoke of the solace and beauty of his god, and I shared mine.
Editing stage: 

Comments

Much enjoyed your conversation, I'm an atheist myself and
have had this sort of conversation hundreds of times with
friends and family.

thanks for sharing

Richard

I belong to a philosophy group - and we are all there: my friend, the Catholic, was also a practicing Buddhist, but reverted to Catholicism, atheists, devote Christians, Pagans, other Buddhists, Agnostics, Spiritualists and lots of other people from every background. It's just such a fabulous thinking/debating/sharing mix. All our belief systems/ religions have flaws - I believe- which is why humans are so very interesting. I just love it! it is also about respect, not blindness.

Jenifer Jaspa James

author comment

( not the song by the monkees!)
But agree with the sentiments expressed so beautifully

I'm a believer too - trust me, in so many ways! So this not meant to hurt anyone. Belief is so interesting and fascinates me because ultimately we all seem to want the same things...

Jenifer Jaspa James

author comment

I was going to discard it into the great poetry rubbish bin but have re-worked it. Comments, please!

Sin eaters are known throughout the world - in Wales, as a child I heard of a mother and son who were asked to attend funerals. They were invited to eat the sins of the dead...it my case it would be a very big meal indeed!

Jenifer Jaspa James

author comment

But this is good too though different

it was destined for the bin as I couldn't get quite angry enough, or feel sad enough or pissed off enough. To be honest, I based the re-write on the idea of the church 'liking' sins - after all, that's how they became rich. And in the end, I just watch the moon and feel content!

Jenifer Jaspa James

author comment

Thanks Beau - I meant the poem to echo the greediness of the church. I traveled in South America some years ago and was in Quito, Ecuador. Full of beautiful churches. Anyway, I sat in one for awhile - and watched the thin woman in black on her knees in front of the fat priest with his shiny face offer some blessing or rather. There was something almost sexual about the scene. He was so well fed and clean and she had so little, he had the power and was the gateway to faith and she was just a scrawny widow getting by. I was so angry. It felt as though he was the sucker fish, sucking her dry little bones.
I really respect faith - but I guess poetry allows us to rant and rave and grieve and laugh in a short succinct form.

Jenifer Jaspa James

author comment

Your write is so correct, there are many places in the world where there is a beautiful church gold plated, with its fat priest, while just outside a child dies of hunger..
This act of a graven image and someone's God, are so evil that it makes a mockery of faith.
How much money does the Vatican City take from the poor to maintain its greed and many bad priests throughout the world.
A point that has arisen that at this moment they want to elect a new Pope, that there are seven Cardinals not being able to attend the conclave because of their misconduct, the list is endless in man's inequality and cruelty, it is painful to me about the children that have and are suffering under such a false faith.
"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not"
Yours with sadness, Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

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