Celebrating 40 years of Citizens for Public Justice
A poem on the 40th Anniversary of Citizens for Public Justice and the Public Justice Resource Centre by Linda Siebenga, CPJ member and poet living on a farm in Blackfalds, Alberta
Dance to the Music of Prophets Mending the World
dance with us today on the edge of anticipation
kingdom-coming participation
forty years of Citizens for Public Justice
dance to the music of prophets mending the world
with liberating principles
drawing us to our calling to embrace the sabbath vision
as they perch on the possibility of enough is enough
long enough to celebrate
that one movement
pause to let your name Lord
touch their lips
with requests to see your kingdom coming
your will being done
here as well as there
now
put on their working clothes
and grapple with the grinding wheels
of economics and politics
hand out lessons of care for this household of Canada
eyes to see the children without breakfast
the mothers and fathers stressed out when
their minimum wage doesn’t cover their needs
those whose rent soars above their ability to pay
the unemployed and over-employed
both needing a balanced day’s work
care for this earth that is nudged off the charts
by producing and consuming
in a trader’s game where the poor
and the environment become national pawns
bend the ears of politicians to help them reconsider
their emphasis on debt-reduction
at the expense of the least privileged
help them consider
the crucial needs and deep strengths
of native people
the preciousness of each person who has
a toehold on Canadian soil
help them think through
what it feels like to be a refugee
waiting
in a psychological nowhere land
between persecution and a safe country
celebrate today with these prophets
who work at their calling to be salt
who take up the challenge of Isaiah
to speak up
for those who are unable
