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A Christmas carol for the 21st Century
By Daniel Patrick Welch
3 December 2007
As Christmas approaches, Daniel Patrick Welch reminds us of the continuing suffering of Bethlehem, which has become a metaphor for grief, death and oppression.
O’Bethlehem O’Bethlehem
The stars look down on thee
As Nazareth reaps grief and death
From mountain, plain and sea
O’Bethlehem a world bedecked
In season’s peace and joy
Will still sit by as children die
And walls your heart destroy
O’Bethlehem O’Bethlehem
The prophets surely frown
A land in pain, a land in chains
As Abraham looks down
O’Bethlehem your children sleep
In fear of tanks and guns
Do Moses, Christ, Mohammed weep
As we betray their sons?
O’Bethlehem we seek that day
When Christmas bells ring true
When liberty and dignity
Belong at last to you
Can Bethlehem forgive a world
So callous and profane
And bring to pass a world at last
Where peace and justice reign.
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To listen to the carol, click here. |
© 2007 Daniel Patrick Welch. Reprint permission granted with credit and link to http://danielpwelch.com. Writer, singer, linguist and activist, Daniel Patrick Welch lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts, with his wife, Julia Nambalirwa-Lugudde. Together they run The Greenhouse School. Translations of articles are available in up to 20 languages. Links to the website are appreciated at danielpwelch.com.
Copyright © Redress Information & Analysis.
All rights reserved.
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