Certiorari Volumus Poem by Elliott Rosenberg

How beautiful upon the mountains do we plow and farm the prairie,
Easterly an effervescent Missisipi river,
Emblazon with Sixty foot bluffs at its silhouette,
A landscape of Icarian communities reborn.

And as the followers of Joseph Smith move west,
Latter-day-saints bifurcate swamplands to grasslands,
Adobes to homes,
Children to men,
Families to community.

And as god speaks to humankind,
We cleanse our sin through grace,
Glorify his name and attest his mercy,
So that we may live eternal with our families in his glory.

Yet the land has its vermin,
Faces painted black with wet gunpowder,
Who regicide the true prophets of Nauvoo,
Jealously by the musket of Carthage brothers.

Yet the flock still believes,
Even though there heart has been ripped from its core as a bleeding sunset from its horizon.
Faith has been challenged,
Yet it has not faltered.

And as a drove of Buffalo that has lost its wise leader to wolves,
The herd assemblage mourns,
Packs its children and wagons,
Fervent at heart and set west through harsh land for a new homeland.

Oh Abraham pearl of great price,
You left Ur-Kasdim never looking back,
You followed the Platte river towards a land of milk and honey.
Settling in salt lake valley,
Blossoming as the roses.

As Orson Pratt entered The Valley he shouted with joy for paradise was at his foothill.
A land of streams and hot springs,
A homestead bequest of gods grace free of the federalist government.

And so irrigation ditches were dug,
potatoes and turnips were planted,
Brigham Young declared 'This is the right place drive on ',
a fitting place 'to setup and ensign'.

And so the heavenly court has spoken,
The Supreme Court has ruled,
The settlers have wavered no more,
Until the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shook the floor.
Isolation no more,
For Buchanans Blunder ensued a war.

For now the State of Deseret appeased,
And the honeybee gave forth its dulcet.
And so the 'Lion of the lord' became governor,
A golden spike fused the railroad,
Bringing Armageddon and prosperity with it.

And as ecclesiastical arbitration endures,
A New Jerusalem is born,
Zion unifies the purity of heart,
A consecration of true love where Enoch lives on.

Golden lilies sprang from The Valley,
Vineyards pursued,
Yet the American Moses declared 'I love the government and the Constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals that administer the government.',
And so the Mormon reformation begun.

Two brothers.
Two swords.
Daniel H. Wells.
Albert Sydney Johnston.
The Nauvoo legion reactivated,
Thomas Kane, the man the lord has raised as a peacemaker endures.

Young resigns,
Cummings governs.
Thirty thousand saints move south with tithing grain,
cached stone from the Salt Lake Temple,
To free themselves of the federal army.

Bannock tribes are left behind,
The Shoshone, Goshute as well.
To Fend and hold the fort of Zion,
As Maccabees at mercy of Greeks.

And as the troops left the Utah territory,
To join there fallen confederate brethren,
Mormons returned to Zion,
To rebuild a new Jerusalem.

For Buchanans proclamation rendered all saints pardoned for his own plunder.
And the children of the lord returned.
To blossom the fields with roses.
Once again.