Tag Archives: forgiveness

December 15, 2025 · 4:40 pm

OCEANS

I could become an ocean

If I unleashed the rivers of tears

Building behind eyes seeing,

Building behind ears hearing,

Building behind a mind

Buried in grief over what I find

Hidden within family and friends,

I thought were of a kind;

Who saw hate and felt repulsion,

Who heard lies and became disgusted,

Who watched inhumanity and scowled,

Who with outrage spoke aloud.

Instead, they smirk and smile,

And change the subject acting proud

To shut down discussion and discomfort at discussing hard truths.

Either they are in avoidance of discord;

Or worse, they approve of lies and hate,

And are simply happy to see hate flourish.

They are not the least discouraged.

I could become an ocean.

Instead, I check my emotion.

I seek to find some common ground.

Impossible when they shut all true conversation with me down.

Is this what pushes us apart,

a river of tears breaking canyon

walls of disagreement apart?

I could become an ocean

Washing them away as I allow

My tears to flow.

Until the valley of tears

Washes hate clear

And silts and nourishes the soil

That love may once again grow.

I could become an ocean.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as disinformation, diversity, family, forgiveness, friends, grief, hate, humanity, lies, love, MAGA, nature, power, resistance, silence, truth

November 9, 2025 · 4:22 pm

MY FIRST AND ONLY CONFESSION

Confession is good for the soul.

I have been told.

My first confession

at the age of seven

Took Sister Mary Claude,

whose diligence I applaud,

months to abate my fear.

First in line, I strode near

the confessional where Fr. Torre

waited to hear blood and gore

from little ones whose blame-game

only recently became a cause of shame.

With whispering words I began to confess.

“Father, forgive me.”( I felt such stress.)

“This is my first confession.”

Father stopped me right there

as I sat on the edge of the chair.

He was behind the screen,

a solemn, still figure barely seen.

“Please speak up so I can hear.”

And, so I did, and started to enumerate

all my sins, expecting him to strongly berate.

His words caused me even greater fear,

“Louise, not so loud, or all will hear.”

No longer did I worry who heard what.

He knew me, when I had been taught,

confession is anonymous.

Now, I felt infamous.

How could I face him across my Mother’s table

when he came each week that he was able

to eat her suga and Italian food;

and feel like family, with buoyant mood.

My only sin that day

was what I confessed every single Saturday,

“I disobeyed my Mother 10 times a day,

every day, of every week, of every year.

I was a disobedient child who shed no tears.

And over these many years

I have never changed my insolent creed

My father told me as I stood at his knee,

“Every man puts his pants on one leg at a time.

No one is better than you; (I liked that line)

and you are no better than anyone else.”

Equality set my soul free, made my heart pulse.

Equality became the base of all courage.

Equality kept me from being discouraged.

As a woman in a man’s world and profession.

I learned to speak up and out loud in my first confession.

Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com

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Filed under FAMILY STORIES, POETRY

Tagged as bible, Catholicism, children, CHRISTIANITY, conscience, courage, EQUALITY, faith, feminism, forgiveness, God, Jesus, Nuns, parenting, religion, SIN, TEACHERS

July 13, 2025 · 5:42 pm

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

How easily done depends

on the sinner and sin done that day.

No “ I lay me down to sleep”

before this Catholic child closed her eyes.

An examination of conscience,

a deep and complete review

of my sins committed that day, as I prayed

in true contrition for my sins; and a promise

to make restitution to all I had harmed

in my self-centered, humanly-corrupted way.

Only then, could forgiveness be petitioned

and God swayed. Sister told me so in class.

Father told me so in the dark confessional.

I await an examination of conscience by all

who voted for MAGA entranced and enthralled

by promises of heavenly and earthly reward

for allowing hate to invade and invoke

the souls of nation recently made awoke

by African-Americans and women who showed

they were equally great to any American.

Make America Great Again only meant

make America white again.

And my church paved the way.

Her misogyny always ready to deprive

women of any control over

the length of their skirts,

the choice to love or escape

abuse in any man’s embrace,

manage their reproductive health,

choose or excuse another’s hate.

Abortion became the rallying cry

to bring sinners off their knees and to the polls

to vote for the liars who played priests like fools.

There is no place for judgment or blame.

Sinners all, we play the same game.

There is a need for an examination of conscience,

for restitution to a nation’s sacred tenets defamed

by such reckless, sincere but sinful moves.

Now, priests and pastors see the error of their ways

as they accompany immigrants to hearings

to protect them from MAGA misrule?

The MAGA the churches helped elect

is not a surprise. And, it remains a sin to be

examined deeply, and completely reviewed.

I await the results of such a self-examination.

I await the restitution to be completed.

I await the apology for distorting Christian theology.

I await the chance to forgive, wholeheartedly.

I know my church is only human.

If only it could remember that truth.

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Tagged as abortion, absolution, apology, Catholicism, child abuse, CHRISTIANITY, civility, compassion, confession, CONTRITION, evil, faith, forgiveness, God, human nature, humanity, MAGA, personal judgment, pro-choice, religion, reproductive health care, restitution, right to life, SIN, sinners, wife abuse

December 2, 2024 · 2:00 pm

LADY JUSTICE AND HUNTER BIDEN

Lady Justice is blindfolded

that she may not see

who stands before her

and makes a plea

to hear a case on its merits

that justice may be served

under the law, and in equity.

Both matter, you see.

You wear no blindfold.

You simply read

what others have printed,

others, like me.

Prosecution is discretionary

under the theory of equity,

where harm is measured

against circumstances and intent,

and restitution is made with consent.

Except, for those with big names,

when a message is meant to be sent,

Lady Liberty sometimes removes her mask

before the process is commenced.

When process becomes excess to prove a point,

or destroy a wrongdoer to punish someone else,

equity steps in to correct the abuse,

and set free one who was meant to be

as all others would be in the same boat.

This is done to keep justice afloat.

Once her mask is removed it is too late

to argue she must not take it off.

It was already off, right out of the gate.

Curing abuse is not itself abuse.

Do not be so obtuse.

Curing abuse is mercy.

Curing abuse is equity.

Curing abuse is absolutely,

irrevocably, undeniably necessary.

Precedent has been set, it is true.

That courts may show mercy

to me and to you.

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Tagged as abuse, ADDICTION, books, case law, emotional-abuse, Equity theory, flexibility, forgiveness, gun control, guns, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden pardons son., law and equity, mental-health, parole boards, politics, presidential pardons, prosecutorial discretion, restitution, tax fraud

October 14, 2023 · 2:50 pm

REMEMBER THAT THOU ART DUST

Revenge is a dish

best served cold.

forgiveness is a feast

meant to feed us all.

When fear replaces hope,

and impulse thoughtfulness,

death becomes

the boon companion

of he who wields the sword

to decapitate infants,

shoots the gun

to annihilate a people,

or sets the fire

to decimate a place.

There is no saving grace.

There is no promise of immortality

to be fulfilled in hateful commonplace.

There is only disgrace.

Personal value, human value,

no longer take the stage,

nor takes a bow, by those enraged.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Forgiveness is a feast for all.

Where it can be found,

nor how,

I no longer know.

But search I must,

before we all turn to dust.

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Filed under POETRY

Tagged as forgiveness, GAZA, love, peace, REVENGE, SUDAN, UKRAINE, war

January 12, 2013 · 2:41 pm

FORGIVEN,Louise Annarino,1-12-2013

Stripped away,

guilt lay

a plutonium ash

across the top of my shoes.

“i’m sorry” too heavy

a phrase to free me

from your tears.

But, your hydrogen

laughter bubbling

over my feet

is strong enough

to lift the weight

of my guilt

and I rise

toe over heel

in stockinged feet

weightless,

guiltless,

forgiven.

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Filed under POETRY

Tagged as forgiveness, mental-health, poetry

Tag Archives: forgiveness

OCEANS

MY FIRST AND ONLY CONFESSION

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

LADY JUSTICE AND HUNTER BIDEN

REMEMBER THAT THOU ART DUST

FORGIVEN,Louise Annarino,1-12-2013

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