.

I asked the Lord, “Please tell me, where’s the outrage
From those who claim to love the cause of right?
Why aren’t more people going on the rampage
To battle dark deception with the light?

A nation has been stolen, and the thieves
Mock all who would expose their evil deed;
Though proof is there, piled high, like autumn leaves,
Some will not look where leafy trails lead.

“Our nation’s voting system is secure,
And those who oversee it, tried and true”;
That’s what they say, but if their claim is sure,
How come the votes turn always red to blue?

The voting system has been desecrated!
That’s plainer than the nose upon your face
With votes lost, flipped and falsely generated
Or weighted differently—a sheer disgrace!

It’s clear the truth’s been trampled underfoot;
For muddy footprints,  there  for all to see,
In telltale,  crisscross patterns, black as soot,
Besmirch with ugly stains this travesty.

For this blessed nation, men have shed their blood
To have a land where rights secured by law
Are cherished as the people’s common good,
A sacred bond, from which none would withdraw.

They built a land where mutual respect
For each man’s freedom, dignity, and right
To walk as his own conscience would direct
Drives out despotic darkness by its light.

That land now finds itself at this dark hour
At risk of disappearing from the earth
As evil men, impelled by lust for power
Would strangle freedom’s future at its birth.

The hard won gains of many generations,
Are crumbling now before our weeping eyes,
As rogues tear down our  fathers’ aspirations,
And scorn ideals they taught their sons to prize.

The city lies in ruins now, it seems,
As wolves and jackals prowl the pillaged streets
And birds of prey swoop down to feed on dreams
And gobble hope’s poor flesh like tasty treats.

I ask, where is the outrage? Don’t men know
Or don’t they care that blessings of such worth,
Were bought through costly conflict long ago
That freedom might not perish from the earth?

So will such riches trickle through our fingers
Like liquid gold?  May God forbid we fail
To fight while hope of victory yet lingers
To thwart these foes, whose plot must not prevail!

.

.

Martin Rizley grew up in Oklahoma and in Texas, and has served in pastoral ministry both in the United States and in Europe. He is currently serving as the pastor of a small evangelical church in the city of Málaga on the southern coast of Spain, where he lives with his wife and daughter. Martin has enjoyed writing and reading poetry as a hobby since his early youth.


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16 Responses

  1. Julian D. Woodruff

    Very well done, Mr. Rizley.
    I wonder if the source of your complaint is people–politicians and jurists, esp.–who are committed to responding in measured and reasonable fashion, as their ancestors might have, without considering that the current terms and adversary won’t bear that comparison. I keep reading about 2000, and 2004, and 1960, and 1876, when the date and place that deserves attention is Germany in 1933.
    Part of the horror is not simply that Biden got enough votes that he might get away with stealing the election, but that this bogus “Christian” got any votes at all.

    Reply
    • Martin Rizley

      Thank you for your feedback! I think you have explained well the source of my complaint. Obviously, I am not chiding the millions of patriotic Americans who have expressed their outrage at the patent evidence of electoral fraud; but rather, those elected officials who are in a position to do something about this situation, but who, for some inexplicable reason, exhibit what appears to be a total lack of “patriotic passion.” Chief among these are state legislators who, knowing all the evidence for fraud, certified vote tallies known to be fraudulent and sent a slate of electors to Congress based on this fraud. Also included are justices who allow disputed legal technicalities over standing prevent the president from taking his case before the Supreme Court.

      So many politicians seem to be treating the present situation as if it were “business as usual”, a mere partisan dispute between equally respectable parties; but I realized some time ago that that is a completely false picture of what is happening. What we are witnessing is a matter of criminal heist and foreign interference in an election coordinated by a corrupt political party and tolerated by leaders in both parties.

      With respect to the Democrats, I concluded some time ago that any party that does not forcefully denounce in no uncertain terms the sort of violence against innocent Americans that we have seen during the Antifa and BLM riots thereby shows it’s true colors as anti-American, totalitarian and Marxist to the core; consequently, any politicians who continue to align themselves with such a radically leftist, immoral, anti-American and anti-God party show themselves to be completely unfit for public office in “the land of the free and the home if the brave.”

      That’s when I realized that the U.S. really is in a situation like that of Germany in 1933; for a party that “winks” at the burning of American cities, the looting of stores, the assault of innocent bystanders, the destruction of people’s cars, homes, private businesses, etc. in the pursuit of a political agenda, would have no problem “looking the other way” when the thuggish “brown shirts” of a Biden or Harris regime, elevated to the role of regime enforcers, do just as much, or even worse, to uncooperative dissenters, once that party has taken total control of the nation.

      Reply
      • Cynthia Erlandson

        I agree totally, Martin. Thank you for the poem.

  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    Mr. Rizley, the simple facts are these: The enemy controls print media, broadcast media, nearly all social media, academia, most of the legal and banking professions, huge swaths of the largest corporate concerns, the major foundations and NGOs, the advertising world, almost all of mainline Protestantism and much of Catholicism, and a vast horde of illegal aliens, ghetto-dwelling welfare parasites, and middle-class Antifa punks in ski-masks, all of whom are ready to riot and do unpunished violence at a moment’s command from their Democrat masters. Add to this the basically unlimited funds of Gates, Soros, Zuckerman, Bezos, Bloomberg, and dozens of other billionaire leftists, who have no problem shoveling unlimited cash in whatever direction they please.

    So exactly what the hell do you want us to do? Wringing your hands at this point in time is laughable.

    Reply
    • Martin Rizley

      As I said to Julian D. Woodruff, the source of my complaint is not those Americans who are expressing their outrage at this moment as patriotic Americans, but those “do nothing” elected officials who refuse to roar like lions against the patent criminality of this heist; in other words, those who can and should turn over the money changers tables in the temple and drive the crooks out with a whip of cords, but who refuse to do so– state legislators, judges, etc.

      Although my complaint may seem to be mere hand wringing, please note that it is in the form of a prayer addressed to God– “I asked the Lord, please tell me. . .” Many of the psalms begin with a complaint against gross injustice and the wickedness of men who commit evil deeds with seeming impunity (Psalm 2, 10, 58, 73 to name a few.) Such complaint to God may seem like useless “hand-wringing,” but it is a necessary means of dealing with confusion and pain to arrive at a proper God-centered perspective about human justice that brings place– peace that stems from knowing that God is charge and that He will judge evil and establish His kingdom of righteousness despite all that men do to oppose Him. That is why I wrote a second part to this poem (posted below) in which, as a Christian believer, I express what I believe to be “God’s answer” to my complaint– the healing balm that can soothe the heartache of one who longs to see justice prevail in a world in which injustice often triumphs (temporarily) over what is right and good. Only an eternal perspective can bring peace and join the midst of such a messed up world.

      There is a very good article on “complaint” as a form of prayer found in the psalter at the following link: credomag.com/2020/08/how-the-psalms-teach-us-to-complain/

      Reply
  3. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Martin, the pain, despair and seeming futility of this dire situation that runs throughout your poem cuts me to the quick – it’s very well written, as ever. I hear the same pain, despair and futility in Joe’s comment. Mike and I had the debate Joe poses, and I came to this conclusion: The reason we’re in this situation is our blindness (as a nation) to this insidious takeover. We still trusted in the weak system, thinking it wasn’t fully broken. It was. At this stage, we still have voices and choices – barely, I know, but we still have them. Trump presented us with the gift of transparency. At least half of us now know the swamp exists, we know who is in it and what they have done and intend to do, and many of them are “Republicans”. We must NEVER stop getting the word out there. We can stand up and challenge the education system. Stop buying from Amazon. Stop supporting Hollywood. Stop watching Cable TV. Close Twitter and Facebook accounts and champion the new conservative platforms. Choose news carefully and spread the truth. The most important thing is never, ever to accept the “new normal” – if we do, we’ll lose our souls and our purpose.

    Please note, that I came to this conclusion after a major meltdown on Sunday. It was a rare and horrible event… I know the horror of the situation. By accepting it, and, by that, I mean becoming indifferent, my purpose will be lost. All the time I’m passionate, and that passion is channeled in a way that deals in truth and reality, I’ll feel my life is worth while… and that is my purpose – a worthwhile life. I will shout the truth from the rooftops to the bitter end, and I won’t agree with and champion evil causes.

    Thank you to the SCP for affording me a platform to do just that poetically. In this draconian world of cancel-culture, that’s an awful lot to be grateful for.

    Reply
    • Martin Rizley

      Susan, I agree with you that no matter how this turns out– whether or not Joe Biden is sworn in as president on January 20- that doesn’t mean that the will, spirit, or principled convictions of patriotic Americans has been crushed, or that the fiery passion they have for liberty before a tyrannical state has been doused. That fire will surely burn on, despite present setbacks. As I said to Dr. Salemi above, for me, poetry is sometimes a way of working through inner turmoil, turning my complaints heavenward in the form of prayer, which leads to the resolution and peace that an eternal perspective brings. That is why, after writing “part 1” of this poem, which is full of angst, I wrote a second part (posted below), which brings a theological perspective to this present crisis. So, although I do feel distressed by the present miscarriage of justice, I am not in despair, since I know who is in charge of the course of history, directing it toward its end, whose kingdom will come and whose sovereign purpose will be established.

      I am also encouraged by the fact that there are plenty of patriots out there who will continue to expose injustice and combat tyranny with the gifts God has given them, to the very end. Present political defeat cannot successfully gag mouths, cut out tongues, dry up pens, or douse the fire in human hearts.

      Like you, I am thankful that a website like SCP exists in which conservative poets can wield pens like swords without being “cancelled” or hand-slapped by prissy Facebook “fact checkers”!

      Reply
  4. Martin Rizley

    “I Asked the Lord, Please Tell Me” (Part 2)

    GOD’S ANSWER:
    It’s then, I hear a soft voice, speaking low
    That says,  “Don’t think I do not see the wrong.
    I see the schemes of your malicious foe,
    I hear your prayers,  and your lamenting song.

    I care about injustice; so should you! 
    And sure as suns will rise, I will judge sin;
    But don’t lose sight of what is likewise true,
    My whisper drowns this noisy world’s din.

    My weakness is much stronger than its strength
    My gospel’s light dispels its sunless gloom
    My truth outruns its tiresome lies in length,
    My life bursts  open wide its sealed tomb.

    My grace is great to cancel crushing  guilt
    My arm is long, and not too short to save
    No stain resists  the  blood My Son has  spilt
    No stone holds back the power that splits   the grave.

    No poison tree exists without a root.
    To kill that root the Garden Keeper
    came,
    Not simply to extingish deadly fruit
    But to uproot the source from which it came.

    The human heart is that polluted fount
    From which flows forth each each vile and noxious deed
    To change men’s hearts, the Son on high did mount,
    To pour forth grace on all the favored  seed.

    For this I sent My Son into this world–
    That good news might cheer hearts all set to hear
    From lengthy  scrolls unceasingly unfurled
    Unnumbered  wrongs inspiring grief and fear.

    Christ  came to do a work that far outweighs
    The weight of all dark deeds that have been done.
    That’s why we can rejoice on dismal days
    While basking  in the glory of the  Son.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Martin, thank you for being so generous with your comments, which, I might add, have lifted my spirits. “God’s Answer” is beautiful and puts all in perspective for me. We tend to feel the onus to put an evil world back on track is on mere mortal’s shoulders. I feel a great weight has been lifted this morning, although, I will continue to “turn over the money changers tables in the temple and drive the crooks out with a whip of cords” – metaphorically speaking, of course. Like you, I would rather wield my pen like a sword. With much gratitude for your poetry and your invaluable thoughts.

      Reply
  5. A Postcard From Screwtape

    “I agree to this Constitution … and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

    Benjamin Franklin

    Reply
    • Martin Rizley

      Quite sad, but likely true, and history has seen this happen before. Whether we shall yet be given a little “reprieve” from despotism, I do not know. I hope and pray that is the case; but we must be prepared for the worst.

      Reply
  6. Julian D. Woodruff

    Mr. Rizley,Part 2 of your poem is very fine indeed, (an important message for pessimists like me, as long as we do what we can to resist and combat the devil’s work, as Susan points out).
    I’m wondering whether, given the volume of political poetry (protest, satire etc.) produced on this site through 2020, and likely continuing through 2021, that some sort of Sonderheft (or even Sonderserie?) devoted to these works would be a worthwhile thing. I don’t suggest that such poetry should be kept from the regular annual volume, simply that awareness of a forthcoming publication devoted to such poetry might encourage more of the sort of poetry Susan, CB, and others (new contributors) are so good at. I would be inclined to support such a publication.
    Vive la resistance!

    Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    Hopes? Prayers? Reprieves? It’s precisely this kind of milquetoast passivity that has let the enemy take over.

    I won’t say any more on the subject except this: when the left tried to take over Spain in 1936, General Franco, the Carlists, the Falangists, and all right-thinking persons in Spain rose up and SLAUGHTERED every goddamned leftist and liberal they could find, shoveled them into lime-pits, and fought for three more years to cleanse their nation of Marxist pollution.

    And many years earlier, when Napoleon and his vile revolutionary forces took over Spain and deposed the Bourbon monarchy, there was a moment when the Spanish royal family was being forcibly hustled out of Madrid by the French. One of the young infantes was crying. This child’s tears lit a hot flame in Spaniards who saw the scene, and within a few minutes there was the crackle of musketry in the streets, gathering force every minute, until it turned into a savage exchange of gunfire at La Puerta de los Leones. THAT’S the kind of bloody rage we need now, Mr. Rizley! THAT kind of merciless anger!

    I’m done.

    Reply
    • Martin Rizley

      There is a difference between “milquetoast passivity” before men and humble submission to God when it is evident that we cannot “undo” a horrible turn of events that has come to pass, despite all our efforts to prevent it (such as the inauguration of Joe Biden, for example, if that should come to pass).

      I think I made it clear that I believe in fighting with a lion-like passion to the end for the triumph of justice over injustice. First, I believe we are to insist our elected officials do what is right and accept nothing less.

      I also believe that under certain conditions, armed resistance to criminal regimes may be justifiable, but I believe that such resistance must be led by “lesser magistrates,” that is, duly authorized officials– such as the founding fathers– whose sworn duty commits them to protect the people from lawless abuse by tyrants who show no respect at all for human rights. This is quite different, however, from mob violence in the style of Antifa and BLM, lawless revolutionary organizations that operate on the Marxist principle that “might makes right” and “the end justifies the means”).

      So when I talk about hope and prayer, I am not advocating a passive response to evil, but about how we ought to respond when it is evident that all our efforts to prevent the ascendancy of evil to power have failed. We need to fight evil with a realistic understanding of the forces we are up against in this fallen world, and the limitations of our capacity to determine the course of history by sheer will power.
      The fact is, no matter how fiercely we fight, the future is not in our hands, for we do not sit in the seat of divine sovereignty.

      To guard our hearts against bleak despair at the hour of defeat, therefore, we must trust in the righteous judgment of God as our final hope. That is what I am saying. I find it is that alone which can give peace to my heart in a world in which evil may gain the upper hand temporarily despite my best efforts to fight it. This was the perspective of Solomon, who wisely understood that perfect justice is not to be found in this present world: “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17).

      So, yes, we should fight, but with an attitude of realism, hope and trust in God as the ultimate Victor.

      Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Joe S., I agree with every heart-wrenching word you say and I don’t want to add to the “milquetoast passivity that has let the enemy take over”. I know just what it cost the Greatest Generation to keep our freedom and to see it eroded over the years bit by bit fired my ire enough to vote, vote, vote and encourage others to vote for freedom, too… and now, under a corrupt global governance, we have given way to tyranny. The trouble is half of the Western world doesn’t see it yet. I have lost friends and family members because I’ve tried to shine a light on this horrible truth. The nature of my job and the fact I live in a small town means speaking out could ruin my reputation, but I will not shut up. Freedom means more to me than my reputation. I wouldn’t be my grandparent’s granddaughter if I didn’t continue their legacy. If it comes to the point that I have to fight for the freedom of future generations and die for my beliefs, I will. Please tell me what else I can do?

    I’m not done!

    Reply

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