{"id":4017,"date":"2013-04-03T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:31:30","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:31:30","slug":"code-ode-9-seagulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/code-ode-9-seagulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Ode 9: Seagulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recite this out loud:<\/strong>
\nSeagulls flying, crying, crying
\nTo the wind, to its sighing,
\nEagle-eyed, (seagull-eyed),
\nWatching, spying
\nOn a man cooking fish.<\/p>\n

Seagulls calling, never falling
\nFrom their flight, never stalling
\nOn the wind, till from the wind
\nLanding, standing
\nBy the man cooking fish.<\/p>\n

But unless
\nThere is a screaming,
\nStormy day or worse
\nI guess
\nA gull has lesser meaning,
\nYet its glory seems a curse<\/p>\n

What used to be
\nReduced to be
\nA hopping, perching, lurching,
\nFlopping, scrapping, flapping
\nBunch of feathers
\nIn still weather
\nBy the sea.<\/p>\n

Yet from weight
\nBy the wind set free,
\nCareless now of gravity,
\nIts fate
\nWill always be
\nSlave to the wind\u2019s depravity.<\/p>\n

Without fail
\nForced to sale
\nUpwind hauling, mauling,
\nDownwind sliding, gliding,
\nEver soaring
\nOn the roaring
\nOf the gale.<\/p>\n

Stranger still,
\nThe human story
\nSeems to me to be perverse.
\nOur free will,
\nThat seems a glory
\nWhich we\u2019ve turned into a curse.<\/p>\n

Free to choose
\nOr to abuse
\nThat freedom in dissenting
\nFrom the best and so preventing
\nWhat we could be
\nAnd the good we
\nNow must lose.<\/p>\n

As part of all
\nWe hold most dearly,
\nFreedom cannot be divorced.
\nAt heart of love
\nLies freedom, clearly
\nLove\u2019s not love if love be forced.<\/p>\n

But what fate
\nBefalls those left
\nWhen selfish freedom\u2019s had its way?
\nBy our great
\nSelf-love, bereft
\nOf life, they never had their say.<\/p>\n

All that\u2019s lost,
\nAll the cost
\nOf freedom needs repaying
\nOr a human life I\u2019m saying,
\nIs so cheap,
\nOn fish-head heaps
\nWe\u2019re<\/em> tossed.<\/p>\n

And can we
\nBe truly free
\nAt heart of our humanity?
\nOr will we
\nForever be
\nSlaves to the heart\u2019s true vanity?<\/p>\n

Once, a man
\nSaid, \u2018I AM;
\nI am the problem\u2019s answer.\u2019
\nSurely madman, bad man, chancer?
\nThen he died,
\nCrucified.
\nSad man!<\/p>\n

All one night his friends went fishing
\nClose inshore, perhaps were wishing
\nHe were there. Ashore, they stare;
\nWith seagulls, spying
\nOn the frying.
\nIt is him! Cooking fish.<\/p>\n

Read this: John 21, v 1-9.<\/strong>
\nHappy Easter.<\/p>\n

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