Bell Poem by Don Pearson

(For the deafened)

Summoned by bells,
I was imprisoned
to learn chapters
from the Bible by heart.
Questioning God’s Word
was not on the
school curriculum,
absence from chapel was
noted and punished,
atheism was anathema.

Otherwise powerless,
I repaid despite and
rejection in kind,
ripping pages from my Bible
after each Divinity lesson.
Though ignorant then of its content,
I began with Revelation
as, through knowledge,
I might today but
the echo down the years
of those bells
has taught me
tolerance of others’ beliefs
that I could not learn at school.

I am at one with the world,
scarred as it is
by people,
certain that they, alone,
know the truth.

12th September 2011