I recently came across this while looking through old writings of mine. I wrote it at the end of a month long volunteer training led by the Brethren Volunteer Service in Chicago in the summer of 1992. During those four weeks, I was sequestered with a diverse group of twenty-some volunteers from all over the country, all giving up a year of our life in service to various causes. It was a transformative period of my life as a young person, where I got to learn about the various activist movements over the past couple hundred years, from the anti-slavery movement to women’s rights to LGBTQ justice. I wrote and shared this at the end of the month.
“From the days of John the Baptish until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men take hold of it.”
— Matthew 11:12
(dedicated to Brethren Volunteer Service unit 202)
You do not fear me
And shall pay for your underestimation
My appearance is little
But my power yet unrealized.
I am dangerous:
I wield disastrous compassion,
Penetrating peace,
subversive knowledge
That may pierce even your cold regions.
I wreak inspired havoc
In this orderly institution
And in my wake
Leave tumultuous community.
I lash out with radical love
And if you dare to come near
In my terrible hug
I may crush the death out of you.
I am tired of talk
Bored by good intentions
Fed up with pointing fingers
Weary of laxity.
A storm is rising.
Can these merely stone walls
Withstand my assault?
rik panganiban , august 1992