Elizabeth Padillo Olesen Poems

Arise, wake up and watch the coming dawn
Days are counted before the Christmas morn
Valleys and hills herald the coming Messiah
Eternal Saviour to people's hopeless groping
...

Winter is moving,
coming to claim
...

Imagine waking up from sleep
and be imprisoned by the heap
of rubbles and other falling debris!
...

Who else would not love his own image?
...

In the valley of death
you come as a Shepherd
bearing the lamb away
from thorns and wolves.
...

Friendship is a seed
that sprouts from the ground
when an open hand is extended
when smiles and laughters are shared
...

When a child is lost,
lost to unknown circumstances,
lost to suspicion of persons
with evil intentions,
...

Sold as cheap goods
abducted, aborted,
deceived, treated as slaves.
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In every woman is a river of love
that flows to all lands
that feels, that comforts and understands.

In every woman is a sea of pain
...

It hisses inside like a serpent
spitting its venom of hate,
giving birth to vengeance
spattered by blood and death.
...