Brian’sPoems

The Collected Writings of Brian J. Mueller

A single poem, met at the right moment, can change a life.

Search and read all 1,834 pieces by Brian J. Mueller — 1,675 poems, 38 prose pieces, and 121 haiku from 12 published volumes. Free to read and share.

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A Slave Ship Called Jesus*

Have you heard the joke

about the Holocaust Survivor,
who died of old age and
came upon God in Heaven?

He decided to tell God
a joke about the Holocaust.
God replied, “That isn’t funny.”
To which the survivor responded,
“I guess you had to be there.”
...

Those cynical jokes,
at which I laugh the most,
reveal something about me,
something I’d rather not see
or haven’t been able to see.

My beef with God
was always paper thin,
never carrying the weight
of existential betrayal
like the kind wrought
by holocaust, slavery,
or nightmarish trauma.

For me, God was irreconcilable
with the rational world I knew,
until I encountered a darkness
for which there was no answer.

Only then
I realized how limited
was the God I understood,
and how unlimited divine love is
in creating a world far beyond
my limited comprehension.

*Jesus of Lübeck

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