That flame that burns and destroys all that for what we yearn.

What of hatred?

That flame that burns

and destroys all that for what we yearn.

 

What of hatred?

That kills the love we earnestly pursued

and then destroys the years of labor in one fell swoop

 

What of hatred?

That strikes the blow

pulls the gun and lets the bullets flow.

 

What is it that makes a man hate a man he loved for eons

and deep down can’t help but love?

 

The fire burns, makes life pure hell,

when all we want is for us to love each other and so be well.

 

The heat absorbs, laying waste

to years of earnest struggle for a good cause,

for truth and freedom and a divine force.

 

The free will, we so cherish, protect and honor

is put in in chains,

when hatred sweeps across the soul’s unwritten banner.

 

We fight for our beliefs and hate those that don’t share

We kill for our gods and hate those that don’t seem to care.

 

We love our brothers, our sisters just as long as they agree.

We yearn for understanding and for agreement,

of our hatreds decree.

 

Through eons past, through lifetimes of desire,

our hope for freedom,

a longing that there simply must be something higher.

 

We lurch, we stumble, make sincere attempts

to claw our way out of all our hatreds unfathomable mire.

 

But each time,

when we sink back and fail,

we convince ourselves once more

that the love we feel so deep cannot be real

in our core.

 

Each time we fail, we give up a bit more

of that longing we have for something up there

for something so much higher.

 

Each time we fail we then decide

that faith and trust,

that all the yearning we carry so deep in our heart

is just a curse to mislead man,

a witches con-game that belongs onto a stake.

 

Just dream of the weak to mislead the strong,

cause life is hard and brutal and so they must be wrong.

 

So many failed attempts, through lifetimes past,

Unfulfilled promises of monks and nuns

that heaven will last.

 

All of that we carry, and accumulate like cinder

for them to burst into the flames of hate.

The moment someone kinder

tells us that love is the answer

that mankind has a goal,

a destiny for something higher.

 

The cinders catch, the flames burn high

the logs of hatred soon give way to heat,

that absorbs the soul.

 

And then the love is gone.

 

But deep down we know

that hating others

destroying what they stand for,

because we failed,

when we climbed the same hill,

can never be the answer.

 

Deep down we know, that our soul’s call for something higher

is not in vain.

 

Deep down we know, that hatred stored,

because of lifetimes of our own failures,

is no flame of freedom, but hell’s solid lock.

 

With all our might

all our heart’s desire

that must be fought.

 

Because man’s destiny calls.

It can’t be denied,

its timeless goal,

to lead us up

to something higher.

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Assit Ed: Leace Hughes/Ed: Sara Crolick