From the facebook group Ex-JW Poetry
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ex-JW-Poetry/339302909485410
To Captive Hearts and Minds
To all my friends of yesterday,
Who view me now as dead,
I think of you when I wake up,
And when I go to bed.
For forty years our captors ruled,
That only friends within,
The prison where they held our hearts,
Were viewed as next of kin.
Where strangers were our brothers true,
The reason? Shared belief,
But now 'the truth' I can't accept,
There's none. Just deathly grief.
For you I've left to chant and pray,
I watch you in that Tower,
Your captive minds have failed to see,
Manipulating power.
For you, I understand escape,
Is not what you desire,
Your place of safety, well from harm,
And everlasting fire.
The food you eat to build your souls,
You take without a doubt,
Sustaining all your faith that you,
Will never go without.
But please, I beg, don't view me as,
A man without good cause,
Don't see me as a renegade,
'gainst your protective laws.
It's not the freedom I desired,
I never felt imprisoned,
But... Leave my friends and family there?
It's not what I envisioned.
But now I'm out, I look around,
I see that I was blind,
The jailers of our minds and hearts,
Did not want us to find,
That there was love and good and heart,
Outside the Tower gates,
That educating one's own mind,
Would lead to selfish traits.
If only you would pause for thought,
And ponder on how mad,
That playing with a plastic toy,
Could ever make god sad.
How shunning me and those who can't,
Proclaim that god knows all,
That from the start he let the pain,
Still knowing we would fall.
Why can't you see that this makes you,
Accessory to the crime,
I can't condone a god who cares,
Who says: "It's not my time."
It's evil, wicked, heinous, vile,
To let a baby die,
And worse to know right from the start,
And have your reasons why.
So don't look down from high above,
Your Tower window seat,
And judge me for the stand i take,
Or preach the end I'll meet.
Don't feel for me, don't patronise,
My exit from your cult,
When you won't even test your faith,
To see what might result.
For no one ever should declare,
Their 'truth' is pure and real,
Without first testing from all sides,
Or a making strong appeal,
To reason, logic, balanced thought,
And see if it withstands,
The scrutiny and tough review,
Before we raise our hands.
I know you THINK you've done just that,
I know you THINK you're free,
It only takes a moment's thought,
To see what I can see.
The risk is great to shun your friends,
To cut your family ties,
When evidence for all your trust,
Is all but laboured lies.
If pain you feel at loyal deeds,
Are making you feel sad,
Then fear not questions, fear not doubt,
There's learning to be had.
This leadership must prove itself,
By independent trial,
Resist it's hold on human hearts,
Please stop to see it's guile.
And when you understand that I,
Have questions they can't crack,
You'll start to see why I can say,
I'm never going back.
The Tower's tall, the leaders' high,
They rule you as a slave,
Don't let them fool you with their hope,
Unto that lonely grave.