So, tonight is poetry night. Generally, I really look forward to poetry night, and tonight was no exception. The theme is "God & Experience" which was exciting because I have a poem that I've been meaning to re-memorize that I've kept putting off, and it fits perfectly in this theme. I also wanted to do my poem, "My Father's Eyes," but I realized that this poem is not "gender sensitive." It refers to God in strongly masculine terms and used male pronouns throughout. And it talks about Jesus, who most people will agree is male. I still really like the poem, and I feel that it speaks truly to my experience and emotion, but I no longer feel comfortable sharing it with people at my school. Which is unfortunate. I'm not sure if that speaks to my lack of courage or the seeming reverse sexism that exists at SFTS, but there you go.
Since this is my blog and I can post whatever I want here, I will share My Father's Eyes with all of you, my blog audience. Please take no offense to the masculine references to God, it's simply a result of the limitations of the English language, my upbringing and the point of my life that I was at when I wrote it. Meanwhile, I will mourn the loss of the freedom to express myself that I had thought I had found when first coming to seminary.
My Father's Eyes
I am glorious in my Father's eyes,
Made by his hand, by his design,
I'm the only one that can be me,
And I can be no one else but me,
Because that is what he made me to be.
I am glorious in my Father's eyes,
I answer to no one but him because he is my creator,
He is my maker and maker of all things,
And in my ear his truth rings,
And in my ear his voice sings.
I am glorious in my Father's eyes,
No matter what anyone says,
Not my mom or my dad of my siblings or friends,
Because at the end of the road, or when a relationship ends,
It is He who steps forward or his Son that he sends.
I am glorious in my Father's eyes,
And he forgives my transgressions,
Whether I know what I've done, or through no fault of my own,
He will stand by my side, in my flesh and my bone,
Seal my heart and my soul so no evil is sown.
I am glorious in my Father's eyes,
A beautiful spirit of mercy and light,
And because of his love it's his fight that I fight,
And I will stand by his side because I know that it's right.
Because I am glorious in my Father's eyes.
* Addendum: I had the date wrong, poetry night is next week
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That's beautiful. And I don't like most poetry!
ReplyDeletei agree with ellen... that's a beautiful poem...
ReplyDeleteand as for the other stuff, well, you heard what i had to say earlier (like right after you posted this).
hugs!
What happened to freedom of expression? It is a beautiful poem and unlikely to incite a riot, if anyone takes offense to your expression of your personal experience (that doesn't involve them at all) it is their problem not yours.
ReplyDeleteI think you should share it for those who are open minded and reasonable to appreciate its beauty.
Thanks guys! Yeah, there's some issues here at the school. Not sure how we can work through them, though. A lot of the guys in my class are feeling like we're not allowed to talk about God in a certain way, and while I like to think I understand where the feminist viewpoint is coming from, I guess I can never completely understand it. By the same token, I don't think a woman can ever truly understand what it's like to be (or trying to be anyway) a man in today's society.
ReplyDelete(Even if he is a 2nd generation Asian-American who also happens to be gay)