Becoming Just
Poems That Explore Commitment to Justice for All
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2022
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Publisher's Description
The poems in this collection ask--How can we become just people? What is human justice? Is there a justice that is equal and/or appropriate for all human beings? How can an individual in action, speech, and behavior be just? How does one think of oneself as just in interaction with others? These poems also address prevalent injustices to children and of society's frequent denial of its responsibility to them, the privileged and the underprivileged. Further, how do we wish to live in a society--isolated, completely independent, self-centered? Living in a society implies association with others. How do we wish to relate to others? The poems query: how will the governments under which we live initiate and execute just rule and governance for all citizens? The book concludes with a lyrical case study of apartheid, especially in Israel that claims to be a democracy. Some of the poems acknowledge that the US's democracy has failed in many ways and has an ongoing need of recovering the principles of justice and equality. Americans know well the meaning of ethnic cleansing in their own land. The poems here make no claim at successful resolutions to the issues raised. They do point to the ongoing need of repentance for wrongs done, and for steering a steady course to guarantee the rights of freedom and justice for all people.
Endorsements (4)
“The many verses in S T Kimbrough Jr.’s Becoming Just speak to me. They remind me there is no ‘just’ for justice. Not really. For justice is more than just race, or just gender, or just creed, or just nationality, or just us. Becoming just is a constant quest for decency to all, a concerted push for equality, an evolution within ourselves and in the parts we play to the world.”
“S T Kimbrough Jr. raises a myriad of critically poignant questions about justice issues confronting the world, including our own paradigmatic status on democracy and rights. He does not offer platitudes, but stresses an ongoing need for repentance, and a steady course guaranteeing freedom and rights: love kindness, do justice, so it rolls down like water and an ever-flowing river; this is indeed to walk humbly with our Lord.”
“The foreword to S T Kimbrough Jr.’s new book of poems, Becoming Just, opens with Martin Luther King’s words, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ These poems further the bending of that arc in a fascinating and challenging way. The poems largely focus on personal, societal, and governmental injustices, and the reader is left with the challenge of ‘What can I do to right these injustices?’”
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