This is a guest post by Tony Bernhoffer. The following is a short biographical sketch he provided me in an e-mail:
“My former high school was St. Francis de Sales at 2323 W. Bancroft Street, Toledo, Ohio. Most of the people in my class of 1977 went on to college. I went into the Army because of family problems. My dad drank and he was a violent man. I did go on the college because of the Economic Depression of 1979. And I dropped out of grad school because of personal problems and government harassment over a former girfriend in high school and my federal civil service application. They did give me a 92.0 for a GS-7 job rating in Chemistry back then. But they declined their offer. And when I returned to Toledo, I was too sick to work-I had a nervous breakdown and did not realize it. Now I have been disabled since 1988. Bible study and reading Christian books has been useful to me. And even a letter counselor at INSIGHT FOR LIVING once wrote me that reading Christian books could improve my mental stability. But being persecuted by antichristian people in Toledo kind of undoes the peace and mental stability that the Bible should provide. I had heard a tape recording at the Chrsitian Servicemen’s Center in Edgweood, MD in which a former member of the Illuminattii had called Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain underground occult capitals. I did not really believe it at the time-but these past 20 years have shown me different. (They had an Army of Air Force major visiting the Center in 1977 and he was an officer at a radar station in Turkey. I would tend to believe that tape was legit.)”
Here is a cathartic poem that Tony asked me to put on my blog:
DEATH by TONY BERNHOFFER
My dad sits at home dying of cancer,
Twelve years ago I was dying of a broken heart,
Thinking about what relief death would bring.
I can only tell him that twelve years ago I wished I was dead.
I tell him to believe that Jesus Christ died for his sins
And he will go to Heaven.
Twelve years ago, my wife left me,
Pretty young women only teased me.
If I were dying of cancer twelve years ago,
I would not have fought it.
Death would have brought me peace
Because, after all, you cannot flog a corpse!
Maybe for the man who has been saved by faith,
Death will bring more freedom than you can believe.
Tony Bernhoffer
National Library of Poetry anthology:
AN ETERNITY OF BEAUTY (1998).
Copyrighted.
Published here with permission.
pheonix two — fixed
