What and why do we fear - a poem

What and why do we fear – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2018

I have come to a place in my human disgrace
Where I have to decide what do I hide
One is fear you might have expected to hear
And to hide it for long one has to be strong.

But one or other time it comes out as a crime
And kills our dream until we scream.


It is not right to conceal the light
we received by Grace for us to embrace
and lose it in fear for things that we hear
Things which might scare our freedom to share
And our innermost desire for things we admire
to do when we're free from every decree
and the threat of sin that is not from within
and our lives are about the things which we doubt.

When we do what we would instead of we should
So bide with me until we agree
That fear has its place in this human race
To keep us humble lest we should stumble
and before it starts to wreck our hearts
and before it succeed to dump us in greed.

Either way there’s a price to pay
before we return to the life that we yearn
and sad to say it takes more than a day
to repair the break we made by mistake
For allowing fear to inhibit our cheer.

Fear comes in to feign and to cloud our brain
and  seduce our mind until we are blind
and before we know it gives us a blow
to shatter our lives when grief arrives

So let you and me to a certain degree
resist and fight fear for things we hold dear
Learning to cope with what shatters hope
until we can see our hard victory
from what was set for us to protect
instead of destroy all of our joy

Fear, you are strong, but don't get me wrong
I will fight for my chance to make an advance
and slay you with sword without your accord
as you only use bluff to scare us with stuff

With things which are small to us who walk tall

But once we stand fast all fear goes past
and we will have fun with fear on the run
To pastures askance to give us a chance
So we will chide as we brush you aside.

Gone is your veil and the sting in your tail
Your poison is subtle and make us scuttle
Turning to things which shame our brings
Not able to know which direction to go
Or where we can find some peace for our mind.

All the while you are there to fright us and scare
Full knowing that we were meant to be
steadfast and sure to always endure
any pain you can bring with arrows which sting
And hurt us so much just by your touch
To remind us that we were supposed to be free
From the shackle which binds our hearts and our minds