Colin F. Jones

~ A Search for Truth ~
Part 1: A SEARCH FOR TRUTH

~ 1 ~

The Roman Catholics claim to have written the bible,
I believe it, because it fits with their view
That it is essential to brainwash the child,
If they are going to believe what is taught them as true.
I asked myself one day without pre-defined reason,
Why I believed in the Christian God,
I only knew what my tutors had taught me,
But I didn’t know; I only half understood.
I began to question myself for an answer,
But I didn’t have one nor did my monk,
I decided to seek, to see what I’d find,
It could only be truth or maybe just bunk.
Either way I was going to question,
But the more I discovered the more my heart sunk.

~ 2 ~

It is not easy to doubt your own thoughts,
To question the “truth” stored in your mind,
To delve into all the religious resorts,
That were engraved there and leading me blind.
I could understand the power of faith,
It was a mind set to overcome fact,
A protection from things that were real,
That might rear up with an aggressive-like act.
It could make you immune to the feeling of pain,
Though the reason for it would still exist,
Like a drug that did something the same,
Though neither one, nor the other persists.
It was a disguise, an armour, a mind block,
A state of mind that helps you resist.

~ 3 ~

First I had to declare that I was a sinner,
Which was not based on any human trait,
But on some rules devised by the spinner,
In order to manage my eventual fate.
Why was it sinful to swear and to curse,
Why was it sinful to declare who I am,
Did Hell await me if I wrote some bad verse,
Why should I pretend and nurture the sham.
Why did men and not women seek attention,
When we all knew it was the ladies who chose
But the ladies faced disgrace and detention,
If they were the first to take off their clothes?
For God, as we severely must mention,
Would not approve of such people as those.

~ 4 ~

You know I had never thought much about heaven,
I just knew as a child it was there,
I didn’t really believe it by about eleven,
But it was a sweet thought we could all share.
Well if there is a heaven it must be on Earth,
For there is nothing out there in space,
It’s got to be here somewhere to be of worth,
But I have found not a single speck of a trace.
Yet there could be another dimension,
Where the spirits of all of us reside,
If I was to believe in anything, I’ll just mention,
‘Tis a thought on which I’ve yet to decide.
For like most folk I want an extension,
Of being the bloke I like being with pride.

~ 5 ~

Oh, so I read, and I studied religion,
The more I did the less I believed,
Perhaps that’s why most know only a smidgen,
Lest like me they find they were deceived.
Today there is so many damned bibles,
And just as many churches as pages it seems,
All making millions preaching to children,
Who think it a sin if they don’t eat their beans.
Politicians and preacher s don’t differ,
Listen to the President! Is that a sermon or what?
Always promising to truly endeavour,
To share the gold with the poor and have not.
But it’s all rhetoric, all fashion repeated,
All boiling in the political pot.

~ 6 ~

Peace on Earth is the preachers lament,
But what does he do to ensure it is true,
More idle time just praying is spent,
And the difference it makes is still due.
He spends more time pretending that marriage,
Is worth the high fee that you have to pay,
In order to get his approval,
To roll about with your wife in the hay.
Well I say marriage is none of his business,
Getting married is none of his concern,
Though not recognized by the church to be still living,
and in the blazing fires of Hell I will burn.
If there is contradiction in that last statement,
Read the good book and more of it learn.

~ 7 ~

In the town that I grew up in,
You were a Roman Catholic or you were a dog,
You were obliged to tell the people,
Which one you were when you wanted a job.
If the religion fit in with the company,
And you didn’t look like a hound,
Then they would pay you a wage of money,
Which wasn’t much more than a pound.
Of course worse than a dog was the black folk,
They were treated much worse than me,
They never got paid and the joke,
Was they were Catholics; or pretended to be;
Which makes me laugh now that I remember
What it was like at the base of the tree.

~ 8 ~

What is the purpose of a lifespan,
In which we are all born to die,
Every living thing and woman and man,
What is the reason why?
Is it so we can all meet up in heaven,
With our birds and cats and dogs,
While those beasts we don’t like much,
Go to Hell with snakes and hogs.
Is that what life is all about,
Appearing through the mystery of birth,
Like the little buds that sprout,
To spread as fodder all over the Earth.
Then like a wick to just fade out,
Death being all that we are worth.

~ 9 ~

What is the point in living life,
If death results in such a dream,
Lifted out of all the strife,
With no space there in between.
Why not die when we are born,
That to heaven we all go,
Without sharpening our cruel thorn,
Without having rows to hoe.
What of those who experience this,
Born sinners but have not sinned,
Who die when they are born,
But with this absurdity are religiously pinned.
Because Adam and Eve shared lemons,
While the Devils serpent grinned.

~ 10 ~

Why do you think you protect your children,
Because you think they are yours,
Rather than because it is your instinct,
Like the beasts with fangs and claws.
Why do you call the instinct love,
But do not express it of a bird,
Be it an ostrich or a dove,
Why do you think to do so is absurd.
Do you not eat and drink and fornicate,
Pass waste and take your rest,
Do you not in Natures world participate,
Build a den and build a nest.
Do you not kill and maim and murder,
For the same reasons as the rest.

~ 11 ~

Do you think because we can reason,
Distinguish between two different things,
That a flower in fair season,
Is unaware of the springs offerings
How does a Kangaroo know when it is dry,
To not give birth to its young,
Or a Black Swan in the dry climate,
Know to produce Cygnets would be wrong.
Why do poor people have more children,
Than the affluent folk down town,
Is it not Nature’s way to ensure survival
That one of them will not go down?
For not all of them crossing the river,
Will flounder and possibly drown.

JERUSALEM

~ 12 ~

The church of the Holy Sepulchre,
Is the monument to Jesus Christ,
Enshrining the hill of Calvary
And the tomb of the resurrection of life.
The unexpected vastness of its interior,
Filled with altars and chapels in decay,
The disunity in the semi-gloom of the crypt,
Everything seemingly in disarray.
There is no apparent inspiration,
Yet it is truly considered a sacred site,
Modified by twelfth century crusaders,
And whoever else thinks it was right:
Built by Constantine in 335 AD –
Now a sacred shrine for all sundry to see.

~ 13 ~

An aggregate of living quarters and monasteries,
And Chapels dating from various times,
Some of fourth century Constantine structure,
Of various shapes and ancient designs.
A Rotunda in the form of a mausoleum,
An Atrium an open court yard inside,
The Basilica of Constantine with its cave,
Constructed with attentive pride.
Another Atrium in a surround of colonnades,
Standing covered near the basilica door,
Beyond which a staircase down to the Cardo Maximus,
In the Constantine complex on a lower floor,
Ancient and interesting compartments,
Impressing the doubters, sceptics and unsure.

~ 14 ~

There is evidence of Muslim influence,
The Dome of the Rock built on Mount Moriah,
Is an historical Muslim monument
Called the Mosque of Omar for those who inquire,
After the second caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab,
Who won the surrender of Jerusalem in 638,
The Dome was discovered after centuries of neglect,
Under mounds of refuge long after that date.
It was said that here Omar had prayed,
That in 692 the caliph Abd al-Malik built the dome,
On the spot where Omar had stayed,
So far away from Mecca and home.
But there were many political diversions,
That the truth is mostly unknown.

~ 15 ~

Mount Mariah was an artificial mountain,
A setting for the perfect jewel,
The Hebrews called it Har HaBayit, (God’s House),
As the Temple Mount it is known as a rule.
It is the heart of Jerusalem city
Haram es-Sharif, by the Arabs was called,
(The Noble sanctuary); for both Muslim and Jew,
For their religions are both deeply installed.
Originally built by Herod the Great
In the first century before Christ was born,
Then later by King Solomon, or David,
The current structure built In trapezoidal form.
King David they say chose the site,
Due to Gods halting of the angelic storm.

~ 16 ~

King David prayed here to expel the plague
According to Muslim traditional thought,
For his census God considered a sin,
Thus was by God’s wrath plainly distraught.
When Angels ascended the Golden Ladder,
Sheathing their swords for much blood was spilt;
He knew this was the access to heaven,
That on this hill the temple should be built.
When Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem,
Solomon’s Temple the Babylonians destroyed,
And the Jews were forced into exile,
Until the Persians armies in victory deployed.
Allowing the Jews to return to their homeland,
Where in rebuilding the church they were mostly employed.

~ 17 ~

Then came the conquering Romans,
And the rebellion known as the First Jewish War,
In the year 70 AD Herod’s Temple was toppled,
The exiled Jews thought it no more.
For many centuries it was considered defunct,
But it was eventually found not to be;
For in seeking that which has sunk,
Will eventually be resurrected for all believers to see.
The whole history of this sanctuary is confusing,
Too many have dabbled in the kaleidoscopic pie,
When you think you have won you are losing,
And it’s hard to tell the truth from the lie.
I am convinced that people will believe anything
That suits the vision they have in their eye.

~ 18 ~

The rivalry of Muslim and Christian,
Is no more obvious than in this place,
And echoes across to the lands of Arabia,
The call for the Elimination of the Jewish race.
For the true monument of God is the Jew,
It is through them that Jesus exists,
But Mohammed followers have a different view,
That the destruction of the whole of Israel persists.
So the world pays a terrible price,
For the religious differences of the two,
Becoming Mother Nature’s clever device,
In ensuring her own method is true:
For to survive the flocks must be culled,
From the old generating the new.

~ 19 ~

None in the world knew anything about Jesus,
Who did not live in the lands of his life;
They had their own ideas about religion,
About establishing laws to overcome strife.
Lots of men over time have been worshipped,
For the brave things they have claimed to have done,
Just as many have also been horsewhipped,
And some have worshipped the moon or the Sun.
Is it not the mystery; the always not knowing,
When someone dies, where do they go,
That is in the hearts of people keeps growing,
The more they fear this terminal foe.
Dreading as time keeps on flowing,

©Copyright February 5, 2009 by Colin F. Jones