ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER

In Reverence For Life
by Michael Doyle


From out of his humble life and thought
A reverence for all life was truly sought
Doing his duty to a higher authority
Seeking the best for all of sacred humanity

The human spirit displayed at its best
When it trembled in the truest test
It indubitably rises to meet adversity
As it always has throughout man's history

Despite the betrayal of the 20th Century
When the effort was death as a technology
Gone too swiftly were the promises of prosperity
Big business proved unable to purchase global security

The Great War that was World War One
Killed off eleven million and still it was not done
The huge cannons and poison gas destroyed civilization
A simple prelude to the 50 million of World War Two's devastation

What can be made of this overpowering technology
That makes the nuclear bomb the focal of all future history
And what then will it take to find peace at last
Please do not tell me it comes with a nuclear blast

Albert Schweitzer lived a life of Alsatian cultivation
Distinct as it is from the German and French nations
Eating as much as if it were German, so they would say
While living as well as the French from day to day

Studying with all of his scholarly rigor and might
In his quest to bring a historical sense of Jesus to light
Having found the church tied to material prosperity
And that Jesus was not divine in His human familiarity

With the inner most workings of moribund eschatology 
Sought to bring about the end of days as His theology
The pinnacle of Schweitzer's success rested in a musical test
When he wrote a tome to Bach of whom he knew the best

Though he misunderstood Jesus's true divinity
He decided to put his belief forward as a medical missionary
Setting on this course he left his earthly success behind
Leaving it to be a doctor, he traveled to Africa to find

That he no longer believed in a personal God but in humanity
Despite all of its worse pretenses and sheerest vanity
That he like Jesus would give his very best and indeed all
To heed what he believed his searing conscience did call

This gentleman of peace did his best to ignore savage war
Until as a German, he could be left alone any more
Interned until war's end, this unbelieving man fought to return
As as medical missionary, however otherwise he might discern

That all of life must be held in the fullest reverence
Approached with love, yet still with great deference
All things have a purpose to behold in purest awe
It was just a pity, how often mankind fails to recall

That all life is worthy of respect and taken rightly
That is to say that the toughest tears must not be taken lightly
But with right intention and only as needed
It was in this complete obedience that the Golden Rule was heeded

(c) November 10, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved