This Generation Seeks Me With their Lips

"This generation seeks me with their lips
"But not with their hearts
"They change the prophet's words in order to confound him
"And say, 'he will neither notice, nor take care.'
"Who, I ask you, Who brings the sun through its course?
"Who waters the lilies, and causes the wetlands to dry up?
"Who causes the rains to fall in one place
"Upon the forests, and yet they do not bear their leafs?
"I, the LORD your God."
I heard this and sat in wonder,
Seeing the almighty acts of the LORD
Who to this day was good to me
And has not filled my heart with sorrows.
The nations bray and burst into laughter
When they hear the awesome wonder of our God.
But, I say, it is they who are deceived.
Does not rain fall in one place
And not another?
Does not the warmth shine in one place
And not another?
Is there not cold in places where it is warm,
And warmth where it should be cold?
Do the nations truly deceive themselves
To consider that they truly understand this?
For it is the wrath of the LORD,
And no thing else
That causes my lands to dry up.
I watch, and am sore vexed
As pools of water fill the gullies
But where are the budding flowers?
Are they not in Shevat?
Why then do the nations say,
"Aha! Our idols have told us so!
"We are sore vexed, let us fix it by making the nations even more poor!"
Yet it is because of your idolatry,
And nothing else.
For your dishonoring the Sabbaths
And violating the workers' rights.
For, one man is deathly ill
And you provoke him to come in and do his task.
Another is healthy, but he does not come into work.
One man says, "I wish to have off on the Sabbath."
And the nation laughs him to scorn.
On your holidays, yes, even these,
All men go about their business
Buying and selling, and having no rest.
Therefore the land has no rest,
And it mourns.


Do the flowers bloom in Shevat?
Do they not sleep?
Do the little animals frolic in the winter?
Why then, do you wander to and fro
Looking for you food, and do not take wonder
At the strange thing the LORD has done?
For you wish to place Baal at every street corner.
Must I be like a diviner
And tell you what is not true?
Tell you strange enchantments to get you to listen?
Must I talk to the flowers
And pretend like they listen?
No, for the LORD has told me.
He is sore wroth at this generation
Who has not the rest of the LORD.
To and fro they go,
Therefore, the forests are become a desert.
And the deserts a forest.
The peoples who have not known His name
Shall know it, and the peoples who honor Him
With their lips shall stop taking the name of the LORD on them.
For they are deceitful.
Do not the nations know that the LORD is God?
Yes, they do know, but they stiffen their necks.
Who is it, I ask you, that brings the rains?
Who brings the circle of the earth to bear
And brings light in due season
And shuts up the light in due season?
Is it not the LORD Who created man and the earth?
Why then are you so mad?
Why do you drive your wagons to and fro
Going place to place
Roaring like a lion fed in the wildernesses?

This people dishonors their God
And they take the name of the LORD falsely
Upon their lips.
This prophet shall be at rest.
He shall eat, shall he not?
And even if it is not so,
He shall rest, knowing the wrath of the LORD
Is upon this nation, and he will sleep
And know that the LORD is God.
The evidence is all around you
Why do you not look?
Did you seek God?
Is this why you said, "I cannot see Him."
Is this why you offer incense to that shameful thing Baal?
"Come together, and let us reason,
"Though you sins were red as scarlet
"Yet will I make them white as snow."
Yet, men said to themselves,
"My sins are not scarlet
"They are mine, and mine to bear."
Therefore, you must bear them
Shameful nation of the Philistines.
Had not the LORD spoken
Yet the prophet sealed the vision?
It was sealed for your hardheartedness
Yet none speak the Words of the LORD
Which are loving-kindness to the generations that seek Him. Selah.

Therefore, repent, and throw from yourselves the idols you carry.
Throw them into the waters,
Like the priests of Rome.
For even they, whom the whole world scorns
Know the LORD is awesome and mighty.
They fear Him, whom Israel says, "These are sinners worse than us."
Are they Israel? Is not Judah suffering from an unrighteous king
And yet the priests perform the rituals, and they throw away the abominations?
They live poor, and they minister like workers to cleans the sinners?
What does Israel do, but call the police on the innocent man for a word?
What does Israel do, but band together and stiffen their necks against the prophets?
Yet, I say to you, greater woes come if there is no rest.
This prophet will return to his LORD with an ill report about this generation
Who had not liberated him,
But rather loved to have him poor.
"How have we not liberated him?"
By words accountable, you had not laid accusations
Against the government that did this.
Which professes "Freedom" when there is none.
For this, you band together with arms
Which is just what Satan wanted!
No, I say, repent, in dust and ashes.
You grow worse with every folly
And you grow more cold with every sin.
Rather, a man's work is to be eaten from
And where is this prophet's work?
It is spoiled by Jackals
And you all know just who they are.
Yet you say, "Let us fight!"
No... For then you will lose.
The Assyrian will be broken by the sword
And by the exorcise of laws.
Yet, my people would not have it.
Therefore, this prophet will rest.
What will you do?
Continue to go to and fro
Eating and drinking,
Marrying wives and blessing children.
Mixed wine is in your cups.
Therefore, the nations who have not known the LORD
They shall seek Him and they shall find Him.
Woe to the generation who rejected the LORD their God
Mighty to save and compassionate to a thousand generations.

Was not my command to you that you be charitable?
Yet, you say, "Charity is weak."
Is charity weak? Is it an abomination
To give to those less fortunate than you?
Must you, in your vanities
Perform the service of healing,
Yet heal it superficially?
The daughter was violated
Yet you say to her, "Be still, for it is of none affect."
The man was falsely accused,
Yet you say to him, "It will be alright. Be at peace."
Yet, with what little abundance they had
They gave to the poor, therefore they will be at rest.
What of you, nation of hypocrites?
Your offerings were to the priests
But what of the poor?
The poor you cast off your stoops.
The poor you called "Degenerate"
"Liar"
And "Lazy."
Must I prophesy to you?
Is Esdras in your holy scripture?
Is there not prophecy in it?
Is there not prophecies all around you
To testify the power of the LORD Almighty God?
Does not God show Himself through these things?
How you judge a prophet for a little error of wording
Yet you, by your great abundant hypocrisies
Speak foolishness to thousands?
You tell them, "God loves the powerful one."
You tell them, "God is with the one whose arm has brought him all things."
Yet, to the poor digging through your  garbage you say,
"Get away! Even our garbage is too sacred for you beggars."
When will this generation learn?
Did not the prophet set examples for you?
When to follow laws,
And when not to?
When to give, and what to give
And how did he give of his sustenance what he could afford?
You call him lazy, yet he works every day
Silently finding the truth, seeking his God
Finding wisdom, and telling it to you?
If he has one  fault
And LORD knows what it is,
What faults do you have?
If he has spoken falsehood
It shall fall upon his head,
Yet why do you listen to him
Secretly in his bedchambers?
Is this the light of God?
To spy upon the innocent
And lay to bear his every word
Like you yourselves were God?
Hypocrites!
For the nations are filled with wrath
And the poor man is still not fed.

Was there not one commandment given to you
Above the rest? Who clothed Christ? Who fed Christ?
Who visited Christ in Prison? Who healed Christ when he was sick?
Who had comforting words for Christ? Was it any of you?
Yet you call yourselves greater than this man who speaks to you,
Who did all these things.
You call him a liar for speaking words in utterance hastily.
While you bring it to pass.
Hypocrites. Idolaters. Thieves. Jackals. Serpents.
These words mean nothing to you
Therefore, a new generation will serve the Almighty
And you will altogether go to the pits.



Truth

The LORD destroys those who seek Him,
And established the wicked.
He gave grace to the prideful,
And the prize to those who made war.
He graced the wicked man, and made him ruler.
He gave His people over to the curse.
"Seek, Seek, Seek!"
I have sought, and I have found,
And the LORD has wounded me,
And has made my disease worse every day.
He has caused my kith and kin to hate me
And has taken away even what little I had.
God established the wicked, and gives grace to the sinner.
Those who wish to walk in his statutes are cursed.
Yet I said in my heart, "It is not so!"
Yet it is so, for I suffer and am made a prey.
The LORD lives, but He is mighty
And exalts the wicked and destroys those who seek Him.
He hid Himself from all, and made His face veiled by a dark cloud.
He allowed His adversaries to destroy His Law
And disgrace His Tabernacles.
He allowed the proof of His divine order to fade,
And has given witness that the wicked rule the Earth,
And He  has given them power over men, to rule for one hour.
Lament, oh Zion, pipe like a horn, and cry out o Daughter of my people!
What have we done? We sought you early, and have sought
And have made it our labor, and you gave it to the dogs to devour.
You caused witches to curse us to our faces
And have caused mages to soothsay before us continually.
Our minds have been destroyed, and there is no more proof of Your kindness.
Therefore, to the righteous of the Earth, shelter yourselves for a little while,
And it will pass. Hold fast your virtue, for things have not turned.
Satan has been given power for a little while.
Go into your closets, shut the doors, and be silent.
Hold fast to mercy, and peace, and truth, and righteousness, and wisdom,
And cry out to God, though He allow our adversary to prosper but a little while.
He shall be crushed, and soon we shall say, "Where is the wicked?"
For they shall be no more, who oppressed the Daughter of my People.

The LORD destroys those who seek Him,
And established the wicked.
He gave grace to the prideful,
And the prize to those who made war.
He graced the wicked man, and made him ruler.
He gave His people over to the curse.
"Seek, Seek, Seek!"
I have sought, and I have found,
And the LORD has wounded me,
And has made my disease worse every day.
He has caused my kith and kin to hate me
And has taken away even what little I had.
God established the wicked, and gives grace to the sinner.
Those who wish to walk in his statutes are cursed.
Yet I said in my heart, "It is not so!"
Yet it is so, for I suffer and am made a prey.
The LORD lives, but He is mighty
And exalts the wicked and destroys those who seek Him.
He hid Himself from all, and made His face veiled by a dark cloud.
He allowed His adversaries to destroy His Law
And disgrace His Tabernacles.
He allowed the proof of His divine order to fade,
And has given witness that the wicked rule the Earth,
And He  has given them power over men, to rule for one hour.
Lament, oh Zion, pipe like a horn, and cry out o Daughter of my people!
What have we done? We sought you early, and have sought
And have made it our labor, and you gave it to the dogs to devour.
You caused witches to curse us to our faces
And have caused mages to soothsay before us continually.
Our minds have been destroyed, and there is no more proof of Your kindness.
Therefore, to the righteous of the Earth, shelter yourselves for a little while,
And it will pass. Hold fast your virtue, for things have not turned.
Satan has been given power for a little while.
Go into your closets, shut the doors, and be silent.
Hold fast to mercy, and peace, and truth, and righteousness, and wisdom,
And cry out to God, though He allow our adversary to prosper but a little while.
He shall be crushed, and soon we shall say, "Where is the wicked?"
For they shall be no more, who oppressed the Daughter of my People.

The Questions I Ask

Why don't people see what's right from wrong? 
Why do people hurt one another? 
Why do people not believe in Jesus? 
Why are people so evil? 
Why are questions deemed more noble than the answer? 
Why is everyone a skeptic of what's plainly true? 
Why does everyone need to be taught by one another? 
Why does everyone have to reinvent a system of morals? 
Why do the most intelligent men find answers? 
Why do governments oppress people? 
Why is freedom of speech not a given in every country on Earth? 
Why is the Human Rights Charter ignored? 
Why is the Constitution ignored? 
Why did men in the seventeen hundreds know our rights were unalienable, when now that's even questioned? 
Why doesn't everyone say, "Give me liberty, or give me death?" 
Why is everyone a coward? 
Why is everyone morally bankrupt? 
If there were a righteous man within a hundred miles, let me find him. 
If there were a wise woman within a thousand miles, let me find her. 
The rights of the people are infringed, and I'd like to know why. 
Why are sales more important than content? 
Why is poetry considered "Untrue"? 
Why do people believe that words have no meaning? 
If this sentence were understood, doesn't that insinuate everything we question about meaning is a lie? 
Why do strings of meaning tap into the Logos of the universe: Why is Lucretius discovering Newtonian Physics, and Milton hypothesizing the Atomic Bomb? 
Why do poets prophesy? 
Why is Love the muse of the great ones? 
I can answer this, but it still has even greater mysteries. 
Why is math more precious than language arts these days? 
If people read more poetry, wouldn't they have less time for idle minds? 
Why do Literary Critics snob at the greatest letters? 
Why does everyone have a different opinion, and why are they often wrong? 
Why can't people relate to the real world? 
Why is beauty not patronized in the arts? 
Why is truth so self evident, yet everyone pretends it not to be so? 
Why are we born knowing the way, and how do we stray from that path so quickly? 
Why are Tao and Logos so similar? 
Why are the sages always affirming what the Bible says? 
If the Roman Church burned all the books, why were they so careful to preserve them? 
If the Library of Alexandria wasn't burned, would we have any more noteworthy classics still being read today? Likely, I deem it not. 
Why do the stars tell the story of Jesus? 
Why is there so much proof that Jesus is the Christ, yet everyone pretends like it isn't there? 
More importantly, do people know the proof that Jesus is the Christ, and maybe they aren't pretending? 
Will God damn someone for ignorance? 
This I don't know. 
Why is racism a worst crime than theft these days? 
If Racism were a three, cussing would be a two, and homosexuality would be a ten; yet, we have it all backward. 
Why is adultery considered noble, when it obviously hurts so many people? 
Why is Homosexuality considered noble, when no society can function justly which accepts it? 
Those and many like it are the questions I ask. 
Questions for poets. 

Evidence

When I look into a baby’s eye,
When I see coefficients can be used to find the area of any quadrilateral,
When I look into the moon against a blue sky,
When I see Pi is a circle’s circumference if the diameter is one,
When I see lines, arranged, follow certain rules when taking shapes,
When I see a sentence can always be understood, regardless of syntax,
When I see moral philosophers discovering the very principles Christ taught,
When I see ancient myths of resurrections,
When I see miracles described by Plutarch,
When I see the ramifications of bad philosophies on the world,
When I see the effects bad behaviors have on societies,
When I see Christ prophesied in the Old Testament,
When I see genuine human kindness, oh how rare it’s become!,
When I see the stars and Niagara falls with the feelings they arouse,
When I see genuine romantic love that will persist,
When I remember peace,
When I watch a movie, and the good men kill evil ones,
When I see people who want to love themselves are the most selfish,
When I see falsehoods spring up into popular ideology, and they warp society into melancholia,
When I see nobody is happy, but I remember a time when they were,
When I felt the love of my family, my grandmother, my grandfather, my aunts and uncles,
When I see morals are certain because behaviors have consequences,
When I see selfishness hurts people, and twists all of society into a deep sadness,
When I see lustful people are vexed all the time, and filled with anxiety and bitterness,
When I see prideful people are loved for a short time, but it’s only because everyone has too much pride,
When I see science calls evil things good and good things evil---I say to myself, "That can’t be right",
When I see rainbows, saw cicadas in 1996, see the diamond of life within an Animal’s mien,
When I remember being a baby, and not being an Atheist, but rather I talked directly to God,
When I see beauty is symmetrical and beauty is health,
When I see the colors of wildflowers and the bees pollenating them; 
What caused the bee to fly and need plant nectar?,
What caused the beginning of the world?,
What reason do we grow colder the further we drift from Christ?,
What reason do the men claim there is no God, when their very breath is the evidence?,
What reason do we believe our consciences cannot perceive the real world?,
What reason do we pervert our nature to cause ourselves suffering, but then lie to and say we do not suffer?,
What reason do we say "Morals are universal," when the only moral men agree upon is "Thou Shalt not Kill?,
How long will it be when even that moral is no more?,
How many times must we witness a miracle, before we can stop rationalizing to ourselves that there is no God?,
How many beloved Christians have to die for the faith?,
Why did St. Paul and the other Apostles die for Jesus?,
Why is it said that Christ never existed, when His birth and death records are so stored in the Vatican?,
Why does Christ’s death record say "He who claimed to be the Son of God," if not for Roman Conspiracy?,
Why did Rome spread a rumor and say the Apostles overwhelmed Centurions?
Why need this lie if He did not exist? ,
Why need this lie if He did not raise from the dead?,
Why are so many in self deceit and unhappy, when they can loose themselves from the bonds of Sin?,
Why are there righteous men who suffer, if not because Christ had said it?,
Why are there evil men who prosper, if not because Christ had said it?,
Why do we all know right from wrong, until we start claiming that neither can be truly understood?,
Why do we claim there is nothing certain, when there are many certain things?,
Why do we claim reason is subjective, if not only because we ourselves cannot understand?,
If we cannot understand something as simple as the meaning of a sentence, then how can we claim there is no God?,
That is the evidence I see, and there is much more.

The Mercy Dog

How strange is the war
Which trepanned the heads of men, women, children.
The mercy dog wanders the battlefield of the Somme;
There he lays dying in no man's land.

It is a strange thing, to contemplate.
The dog, the brown of a German's hair,
A hound shaped body, or a mastiff's,
And its red cross upon its shoulder.
It wanders, sniffs out blood
For men---this is the strange thing
See how strange it is
That a man lays dying from the wound
He took from another man---
Why do these men kill?




For Kings, Queens, Democracies,
Autocracies, Panopolies arrayed in rows
Firing mustard gas, its licking smoke
Maddening Prufrock, who probably should have died.

Yet, this man lies dying on the battlefield,
An Irishman, taking a wound in the head.
The mercy dog comes to him,
Lays down, as a bloody hand scratches behind its ear.
Soon, the fingers draw lifeless white,
And they stiffen.
The dog moves to the next body.

How strange it is, that men do this thing.
It is an alien thing that armies move across frontiers 
And the obdurate faces of men having raped, murdered, stolen, killed,
They stand in their glimmering rows.
Afterward, their friends are lying dead upon battlements
And the Mercy Dogs, the Chestnut Mastiffs,
Wander to the wounded, wagging its tail
And what a wonder it is, to lie dying on the battlefield
To see life will leave you listless, to where will you go?
Heaven? Hell? You have fought in war;
The mercurial ichor drips from 
The heathen gods you have slain.

The dog lays beside you, or it takes your cloth
To retrieve it to the medics, and lead them to your wounded corpse.
It is strange, know how strange it is,
That the man lies there, having been hurt by his fellow man;
He dreams of his Beautiful Redhead
The one he never had
The one he never made love to
The one... it was made his God.
Will he have her in the afterlife?

The dog licks the wounds of the dying man,
Its antiseptic tongue licking away the soreness by its breath
And where does the soul of those slain go
On the battlefield?
Young virgins, only twenty years old
Who have shed blood before the virginal flower?

"I do not want any kingdoms
"Or strange worlds vast...
"Simply, my only desire
"Was to have her naked body in my arms,
"And yet, I die never having shared in her warmth;
"I know not amatory's sting,
"And I die."

Neifert, B. K. “The Mercy Dog.” 2022.

©2022 B. K. Neifert
All Rights Reserved

The frost makes firm the icy lake,
The samara twigs do break off;
The deer and rabbit prints of late
In the snow are made by paws.
The blackbirds sing their songs
And the bear do sleep at ease.
Love is burrowed in the fields
Where some creatures there do sleep.
The insects are all in the ground
And in peace, the trees art bare, surround.

No great thing disturbs me now
As winter is in her hoary home.
The furnace burns, and makes a fire
Keep it stoked at perfect coals.
Great harrowing war echoes there
And great sorrows the people have;
They are actors in great halls
And I feel that I am mad.
For I cannot but see them all.

Their faces are so stiff;
Pleasures are also dried.
I walk along the silvery path
And say, "LORD make me ever wise."
I cry to Him for pleasures true
As the lake whoops so divine.
The foolish of this world do skate
Upon thin ice to see.
That they are fools, but I, but I,
Am the fool of fools indeed.

For Trumpets blast in silence,
And the greatest are made small.
Petulant sinners are so dense
And the leaves do blossom wrong.
In the dead of winter, I at a green leaf pause.
"Why did they not listen? And why were they all false?"
Yet, the rabbit tracks and deer like hooves
Make a satyr print, I find.
The brother deer do lick the ice
And the squirrels there do pine.

And as I walk through this brave new world
I say, "It is not mine and never were."
For the great man wants to steal the prize
And the doctor wants there to be no cure.
Men say "Fascist" in the night,
But both sides are so obscure.
I wish this song were just 'bout winter
But, like Orwell I must be weird.
So, the whooping lake, no preternatural song;
I know 'tis not ghosts and choks.

©2026 B. K. Neifert
All Rights Reserved