Thou Shalt do no Murder: Sixth Commandment...

The newspapers have stories about murder continually. A Commandment of God, do not murder; this seems clear enough. Here is a poem on the Sixth Commandment:


Sixth Command: Do no murder...
by Peter Menkin

Life, like a flame
gives light and burns:
a breath, the Holy Spirit,
gasped and known
at birth.

Honor and respect
this special gift, the Lord
says. Be a friend to life.

The Sixth Commandment,
says do not murder, for murder
snuffs the flame,
ends the breath,
yet cannot still the soul.

Blood may cry out, it does,
that murder, foul crime,
has ended life. We call
it awful, sin, evil. So many things
that tell us it is wrong.

For we think,
and know, not like brutes
but as mankind.

Let us cement our relationship
with the Lord, and say to ourselves,
each day: have I snuffed a life,
by giving pain, or stifled a flame?
For murder goes beyond the death;
death in many ways as in
spirit, or self.

Keep the spirit lit,
come with others
to the Lord; know
Him. Choose life.

Do not, no let us not
do none so terrible, as the taking of life.