Alive

Unbenounced to you and me,

Beyond the place of tyranny,

There lies a love that holds us—

In sure and constant watch.

I pass a place of future crashing and

 Far beyond the tongues and lashing

 There lies a blaze that’s burning—

Never to be drenched.

When people live and love beyond themselves,

Hearts betray this bitter world—

There’s bound to be a breaking.

But I can’t sweat for better yet

When all I have is manifest

In who I am, who I was, and what I’m not mistaken.

If this is freedom,

Living and loving hard,

When guarantees are lewd and shard

And I can’t rest on human souls,

Because they’re impractical and bruising…

There has got to be more.

There has got to be something deeper out there.

And I hope that you look and you find,

Because the people are being restored

Where vines and branches sever more

And never has it been so crazy.

Kick the doors to free me

to say that I’m alive and I’m thriving still,

I’ve lost my feet, but I won’t lose my will

You can hurt, but you cannot kill

The raging fires of a man who’s been caught by human lies

Time after time.

Who’s been,

Soaked
and choked
and rung 
by compromise.

Who was once dead

but
is now

Alive.

~Jonah Werner, "Alive"