Ode to Jonathan Swift

Another zany pastor guy from a few hundred years back

Dig my poems? Buy my book! :) (Yes it is currently only available through Amazon. Yes I understand you don’t want to support large corporations. I literally do not have the capital to do it any other way. Maybe save your virtue signaling and protest for like…a big corporation. Or just direct your positive energy into something that will actually help like planting a garden or buying bitcoin. :P

Recently I found myself in St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin, Ireland) standing on the grave of Jonathan Swift (the dude who wrote Gulliver’s travels and some other classics). I didn’t know much about him, and was delighted by what I learned in my airpods through the guided tour. He was a satirical poet, controversial using his position of power (as the deacon of the Chapel) to comment on the political injustices of the day. They shared a snippet of a poem he wrote to confront the systemic poverty of the time, insinuating that the destitute citizens ought to simply eat their babies to survive since the government would not care for them. The poem even offered recipes for doing so. I dig the visceral image, the draping of realities in hyperboles that actually make the brutality of the world we live in more apparent. Inspired, I sat on a bench outside and penned a modern version of this poem. The nationalist Christian movement we are witnessing has nothing to do with the teachings of Yeshua, who showed mercy and compassion to the less fortunate. As we live through the end of a so called “Christian” empire, may we by grace witness more and more people connecting with the absurd metaphysical foundation of Christ’s teaching: WE ARE ALL ONE. WHEN WE STEAL FROM EACH OTHER, WE CANNABLIZE OURSELVES. LET THERE BE JUSTICE, EQUALITY, TRUE FREE-MARKET CAPITALISM (bet you didn’t see that coming?) AND PEACE ON EARTH.

Amen (Abwooooooooooon)

Corey