Can’t Imagine It For Myself Poem by Margaret Alice

Seeking release in tears, reading about the suffering
described by Wurmbrand, priests forced to serve holy
rites with human excrement is too much

Never cried at school, the first time I read this I kept the
shock inside, felt like dying of sadness, crying helps to
release the pressure building up inside

Cannot share Wurmbrand’s experiences and return to
my own place and time, my mind remains in Romania,
in a prison where men are dying in pain

Reading to extract the spiritual message from the author’s
account; though this morning washing came first, I couldn’t
break out of the red, violent atmosphere of

Brutality flecked with the grey of betrayal and deprivation,
washing became a rite of sadness, followed by an abortive
attempt to seek solace at the mall

Tried reading The Choice For Love by Stanton and Rodegast
but their inane repetition of ‘always choose love above fear’
did not assuage the fear engendered

By Wurmbrand, the loving Pastor, suffering simply because he
clung to his faith under religious persecution; didn’t matter how
often he chose love

Prison circumstances kept growing worse; luckily the end of
the book is in sight, I’ll be enriched by sharing the events with
Wurmbrand and fellow believers

Wondering what I would have done under religious persecution,
this is the scary part – would I have been brave –
I can’t imagine it for myself…

Richard Wurmbrand “In God’s Underground” edited by Charles Foley,
Garden City Press,1968
Stanton and Rodegast “The Choice for Love” Bantam Books,1989