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The Worst of Our Convictions

When, finally, the last church shuts its doors;
when we run out of new identities
to choose from; when the politicians have
enough of power and wealth to make sure they
can always get a little more, and each
is safely snuggled in the pocket of
some corporation; when the next great plan
to save humanity falls through; when all
are duly boosted to deter the next
pandemic—or the next vaccine; when mobs
make downtown commerce a forgotten art;
when every word we speak is only hate;
when culture doesn’t matter anymore
and no one listens to the evening news
(since one lie’s just as good as all the rest);
when families are a distant memory,
and euthanasia’s just the next best thing
to make sure we have quality of life;
when prosecutors work themselves out of
a job and cops don’t ever dare to leave
their station house; when coastal cities are
abandoned and submerged; when art becomes
at last freed from all need to understand
or to explain; when war is everywhere
denounced and everywhere a fact; when
every desperate refugee and all
those seeking immigration are reduced
to some agenda item, and the poor
and homeless huddled masses are by all
forgotten; when we’re burning worthless cash
to keep our homes warm in the winter, if
we have a home at all; and when, because
no recognized authority exists
to tell us what is orderly and what
is not, then every person everywhere
does only what is right in their own eyes;
which is to say, that when at last the world,
in all its facets, institutions, people groups,
and parts, is ruled and populated by
the worst of our convictions; then perhaps
we’ll pause to wonder how we got this way
and how we can escape or start again.

But will such musings even matter then?
And will we care more then than we do now?

.

.

T. M. Moore makes his home in Champlain Valley of Vermont. 

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9 Responses

  1. Paul Freeman

    A poem that gets everything off the chest and tells it as it is. Most poignantly, today, from your various world issues, polio, which we almost eradicated worldwide but for war in Afghanistan and anti-vaccers in Nigeria, has broken out in Palestine.

    Reply
    • Paul Freeman

      Loved the pointing out of rising sea levels caused by global warning, too.

      Reply
  2. Mike Bryant

    You paint a bleak picture, TM.
    Will such musings matter then? No, probably no more than they do now. The world is totally deluded on just about every front. Some people believe that our governments have our best interests at heart. You seem to have their number.
    There is only one government that has our interests at heart and the head of that government doesn’t need an election.

    Speaking of vaccines…

    “The oral polio vaccine was banned from use in the United States in 2000. The reason for this ban was because too many children were developing vaccine associated paralytic polio (VAPP) as a serious side effect of the oral vaccine. In other words, they were developing paralytic symptoms that the vaccine was supposed to prevent them from developing, should they have gotten a natural polio infection and developed temporary or permanent paralysis, which are rare side effects of the polio illness anyway.
    When you hear about ‘outbreaks’ of polio in foreign countries, the first question you should ask is, ‘Are they using the oral polio vaccine?’ and the answer is usually, ‘yes.’ If children in the US were getting VAPP as a significant side effect of the oral vaccine, why wouldn’t this occur in other countries where children are receiving the oral polio vaccine, and health conditions may actually be worse for them there, than they are in the US?” – Dr. Lawrence Palevsky

    Was the polio outbreak in Gaza caused by the oral vaccine push below?

    In a June 13, 2024 UNICEF report that covered a reporting period between May 16th through May 29th this year (2024), 10,000 does of the oral polio vaccine were administered in Gaza.
    During the reporting period, UNICEF also managed to conduct a mission to the North Gaza governorate in order to deliver  vaccines including 10,000 oral Polio vaccines, 5,000 Rotavirus vaccine drops, 6,000 Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines,  as well as Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis vaccines.

    Why did UNICEF push the oral polio vaccines that had already been banned in the USA?

    Reply
  3. Joshua C. Frank

    My favorite lines are, “and no one listens to the evening news/(since one lie’s just as good as all the rest).” I normally don’t care for blank verse, but this one is interesting.

    I find myself thinking: when those things happen, will we be able to tell the difference from today? We’re so close to that point as it is.

    Reply
  5. James Sale

    Good to see you back writing TM: this is a fabulous and necessary indictment of ‘direction of travel’. The cumulative effect of its lines build and build; if one were only a secularist, we might as well start the euthanasia now – fortunately for those of us who believe in the Spirit, not all is lost. Let’s do what we can now to resist this tendency – and your poem, exposing it, is a good place to start.

    Reply
  6. T. M. Moore

    All y’all:

    Thanks for the comments and the supplemental information. James, to your point: I wholeheartedly agree. But I struggle, trying to get the people of the Spirit to wake up from their comfy faith and lay hold on the promises of God and His Kingdom. This poem was written for them. I implied the lines from Yeats, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”, hopefully to hold up a mirror to the self-centered spiritual quiescence of the Christian movement. But I pray, and hope you do, too, James et al, for apart from Him, we can do nothing. T. M.

    Reply
  7. Warren Bonham

    This one relentlessly, but honestly, punches the reader in the mouth. Given how consistent and durable this pattern of behavior has been, it’s not likely that we’ll ever find a means of escape or a way to start again but we can’t stop trying. The meter was well suited to the task at hand. Well done.

    Reply

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