"Turning The Page"

Visiting the Poetry Library's
Very hit and miss
Some books are a delight
Others worse than this.
As a Born Again Atheist
Dear oh dear
This one I'll skim
I'll get no cheer.
For my religion's football
My God is Edgar Kail
Dulwich Hamlet's greatest player
Is the one I spiritually hail.
For I don't care whether you're
Christian, jew, muslim, sikh
I want no part of
Your religious clique.
I enjoy perusing poems
As much as I can read
For entertainment and inspiration
Planting an idea from a seed.
It's poetry that helps me
Not any god squad faith
I don't need your religions
To help keep me safe.
I use my rhyme
To keep me calm
Don't need your beliefs
To protect me from harm.
For me it was just bad luck
Picking up your book
More than one mention of your god
Was all that it took.
Don't get me wrong
You're entitled to preach
Just don't want it near me
Keep it out of my reach.
The only 'pleasure' I got
Was the first datestamp on your label
It seems nobody else has been interested
In your religious fable.
If it takes another twenty four years
For you to be read
I'll see if you were right
As I'll almost certainly be dead!
If I'm standing outside heaven
At St. Peter's door
And he doesn't welcome me
I don't want to be there for sure.
Truth is no-one knows
If there's heaven or hell
Despite religious brainwashing
It's impossible to tell.
While I'm breathing on earth
With life I'll muddle on and cope
I don't need strange men in white dog collars
To give me false hope.
All we really need is
One mantra of "Be nice!"
Enough to end all wars and hate
Surely that should suffice?

Dulwich Poet 14th November 2014

(I am not religious at all. When I choose books from the Poetry Library, it's usually judged by the blurb on the cover, with a quick flick at one inside. Sometimes the book I choose isn't for me...certainly not when they contain religious poems. This is about choosing one of those...& I scribbled this down, after trying to read it, while sitting in a hospital waiting room.)