A young nation mourns
While hatred kills again
Evil raises its ugly head
Our unceasing prayers cry out loud
Surrounded by heavy hearts
We ask God for His strength
His unwavering love
For those who died and their families
Our souls openly weep
In the streets
Of every town
We stand side-by-side
Held by
His tender mercy and grace
Today ~
Now at this moment
And in this time
We stand
Against all evil
Everywhere
Let the power of prayer
Become our strength,
Our treasure, our healing
God’s embrace
All life matters
We stand
Together hand-and-hand
We hold
Onto mercy and love
God’s assurance
Our cries are heard
And we are never alone!
When no reason can ever explain
These retched days of killing innocents
Where did we go so wrong? . . . .senseless
Shared with @dversepoets #OpenLinkNight #PoetsPub #CharlestonStrong
Shadowleaves on Lake Ann 
This is such a sad.. poignant piece.. the closing lines say it all.. may the mercy of God be upon us all.. Amen.
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Thank you Sanaa. It is such a hard day. I could hardly watch the news throughout the day — so unbelievably sad. I just offer a prayer as a reponse to my overwhelming sadness.
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I can imagine.. the news is dreadful.. sometimes a bit too overwhelming to watch.. and yes we each offer a prayer for peace.
xoxo
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All life does matter.
Sadly, we are human and have shown from the beginning of time our value on life is not that strong. It is senseless. But in the wake of it, he is the only peace possible.
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I was on scene immediately after the VA Tech shooting, just loving on the kids. Hopefully there are those now there doing the same with all those involved.
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That was truly horrible. I lost several young folk who were applying for the engineer-in-training exam. One of the young men went to my church. It was so horrible to be so close to some of those kids and to people who worked in the building.
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Thank you X for stopping in. I just can’t believe that it’s just because the beginning of time we have always had death and wars. This can be changed as it takes all of us to make it so. Just my prayer for hope!
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What happened is beyond words, beyond understanding, and leaves us under shock. Hopefully lessons will be learnt and remembered.
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Thanks Gabriella for comments. It does leave us in shock and just unable to move — it’s stops me in my tracks. I can keep praying for those families.
I do believe in the power of prayer.
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I do too, I think, but it frightens me to think that they had been studying the word of God and praying minutes before they were killed.
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There is so much sadness today! One more senseless hate killing by a young man whose father gave him a gun for his 21st birthday. I am so sorry for the families of the people who were lost as they bowed in prayer.
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Thank you Mary. So very true . . . I wish we had the political courage to do something about easy gun ownership and carrying guns without a permit!
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Amen to that!
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Beautiful tribute to the fallen and an excellent prayer for all. Peace, Linda
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Thank you Linda for stopping by tonight and for your kind words!
Peace to you too 🙂
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May I wash away some of the “white hatred” with white tears?
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Yes! May all of our hearts answer this call! ~let them flow rivers!
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Very timely and meaningful share ~ May love always truimph over hate ~
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Grace thank you! Yes ~ this too I believe!
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All lives matter…and hopefully, this shameful and horrible event will do no more to divide us. Enough is enough….I have to believe that love will truly win out.
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Thank you for your comments! So true ~ love wins over hate! 💖
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Deep sadness descends like a deathly blood mist; excellent tribute & prayer poem; one point to share though–the plural of slay is just slain(no ed on it). I get botched up by bear(s).
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Glen my friend thank you for stopping by and for your edit. I took another look & had several errors ~ I stand corrected! With appreciation ~joanie
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Once again we have to see those scenes. The best thing is was caught alive.. We need to understand why. It’s like Breivik….
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Yes, powerfully and soulfully put. It must have taken a lot of courage and resolve for President Obama to speak out about the desperate need for gun regulation in the US. Although I am not sure how one could physically gather up many of the 300million guns and more in the country.
I felt desperately sorry for all involved, including the deranged young man who must be so consumed with fear, rage and distorted beliefs.
These shocking tragedies simply do not happen anywhere else in the developed world with such horrifying regularity. They are rare and exceptional events, and in some countries just never happen, everywhere but the US.
I remember reading recently, four people an hour die in the US because of guns, one of them a child and even more are hospitalised. If anything else was killing 24 children a day something would be done. Let’s hope something can be done.
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interesting tie in as well is the pharmaceuticals that many of these young wildly violent youth have in common.
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God’s mercy and blessings, we always need more to sustain us.
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A tragic loss, evil exists.
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