Monday's Poetry: "Saved in a Beer Hall"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator


At a time when Christian fundamentalists appear to be waging a holy war on tolerance, I found the following poem on the subject of salvation to be especially uplifting.  "Saved in a Beer Hall" was written by a twenty-two year old literature student at Kent State University named Derek S. Keck, and it is copyrighted in his name.  This work speaks to me, powerfully.

Saved in a Beer Hall

by Derek S Keck

I’ve been saved at the end of a stein
In a bar, moving through eternity’s eternal secret
Happiness
The reality at the center of true reality
The heart of all that is truly good
Drinking wine, feeling the cosmic soundness
Of merry hearts lifted by lighter heads
“Hang your heavy thoughts at the door”
Reads a sign at the entrance

In churches and cathedrals
I’ve never felt such love
As I do with my pals with beers in our hands
Cosmic vibrations in glazed eyes and lifted spirits
As we sit in the halls
Where the flowering of love
Sails like a dove, cresting the sea
Across the sky, from our mouths
Boasting our love
Unlocking the heart of eternity’s eternal secret

There is no doubt of this flowering of love
No one sleeps in the pews
Or listens halfheartedly to preaching’s of man
Where God’s love is vacant
Because hearts don’t flow freely
Or choose to understand
“Leave your merriness at the door”
Reads the sign hung on the above chapel

I hear women mock the younger’s dress
Complain about babies raising lamentations to the lord
Christians who call themselves Christians
Then leave with a big *&%$ you
“Sure, maybe I keep two out of ten commandments.
Not a big deal. I’ll ask for salvation.”
(and not mean it)

Men and women who scream
“I’m a follower of the lord.”
They yell out “This is how you live virtuously”
Then under the cover of night I hear them chant
“Contradictions, Contradictions, Contradictions”
Then come morning
They head no warning
When they damn others
For the sins they commit
Without love or want to understand

I hear the scream in public markets
“Damn Muslims, foreigners, and our own contradicting thoughts!”
Contradictions of books and men who speak of love
And bury the world under an avalanche of
Hate and intolerance
Breading hate and intolerance

Sometimes in pew
I see the graveyard of God
Where no one comes to praise
But follows monotonous motions
Void of any love
The spirit has left
No love is found

So it was
When I found God in a beer hall
Where praise and love is not content
Being held in the heart
Where merriness abounds
And cosmic vibrations fill our hearts
With a greater love
For where laughter and merriness is not
Spirituality doesn’t exist