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Barnabas Smith
33/M/Longmont, CO    Barnabas Smith (b. 1986, San Bernardino, CA) is a poet, musician, and designer born and raised in Southern California. He has also lived in Alaska …
22/M/Lagos State, Nigeria   

Poems

The House of St Barnabas.

If I ever elected to be selected
rejected then detected as a phoney,fake
I don't recall
that was before I took the fall
did the bird
before a word of mine was spoken out.

Around about two thousand and eight or was it nine?
the time is no great matter
the former or the latter it's no great shakes
but is it the time I made the breaks in continuity
the absurdity and futility
of this life I was living
and for this I'm giving credit where it's due
and you people know just who you are and what you did
what you achieved against all the odds
for you it was not a numbers game but a human life that was in the frame
and you're named just right.

I wonder what St Barnabas might have to say about the way you encouraged me
and would he nod his head and see just what you did?
You got rid of the one that had hung on so long and you opened up my eyes to the future and what it could mean
and I thought I'd seen nearly everything just about most things that a lifetime could bring
how wrong was I?
Why,
you showed me another route and with a 'whistle and flute' sent me headlong knowing what's right and what's wrong
and with a song in heart you gave me the start
to begin.

And I realise that the truth always lies somewhere within the within but it's how to begin and what method to choose or what direction to take.
Did St Barnabas really take time out
to worry about me?
I think you can see that he did.

In the house on Greek Street I think I could say that I met the real me and get this,
I meet a lot
but not what the house of St Barnabas got
and that's what did it for me.
Encouragement see
feeds the lost and the lonely
if only
there was more than just one
But St Barnabas goes on and it goes on in the makings of men who when they think all is lost and think the end is quite near
there's a Saint near here
who will help.
"Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand."--Acts xxi. 3.
"We sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary."--Acts xxvii. 4.

St. Barnabas, with John his sister's son,
  Set sail for Cyprus; leaving in their wake
  That chosen Vessel, who for Jesus' sake
Proclaimed the Gentiles and the Jews at one.
Divided while united, each must run
  His mighty course not hell should overtake;
  And pressing toward the mark must own the ache
Of love, and sigh for heaven not yet begun.
For saints in life-long exile yearn to touch
  Warm human hands, and commune face to face;
  But these we know not ever met again:
Yet once St. Paul at distance overmuch
  Just sighted Cyprus; and once more in vain
  Neared it and passed;--not there his landing-place.