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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Fast Day 147 March 27 2010 {Easter Week 1}



Easter Week 1

I'm going to Gethsemane 'cause I'm so sad today;
gonna catch the morning train and go far away;
it wracks my ribs and break my bones,
and still I can not die;
Say, will you not pray with Him,
jus' three hours now,
or in the sweet bye and bye?

All the world's a tinderbox, and my soul is dry;
it will burn from cigarettes 'r lightning from the sky;
will burn my feet and char my hands,
and that will be my doom;
Friend, come and pray with me,
a little while now,
'fore they lay me in that tomb.

I was drunk, and so I lay down across the bed;
all the beer I had chugged had gone right to my head;
and I will wake up with a jolt,
when He asks me why?
I go to pray with Him
just three hours now
and in the sweet bye and bye.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Fast Day 146 March 18 2010 {Hard Times, Come Again No More}



O, Hard Times Come Again No more

hunger no hunger,
thirst me no thirst,
can't eat an' can't drink!
dont know which hurt worst!

been out a money,
I been out a love,
I been out a prison
as free as a dove!

but I fear for what's comin',
I weep for what's gone;
the bank took the house
we lived in so long.

fear, o, fear! ever'where,
and on every side,
an' your white brother famine
a pale horse does ride.

praise me no prayer,
and bend me no bow;
we had us no king,
but fear rules us now!

despair of heaven,
despair of God!
we shall be chastised,
and death holds the rod!

Save us from greed,
save us from lies;
save us from incest
in our siblings' eyes!

We stand in the white tent
that flaps in the dust!
revival we prayed at,
the rot, o, the rust!

speak me no sermon,
wit me no thought!
can't speak and can't think;
can't do what I ought!

Give me a pass, Lord
let me run far!
give me ten dollars
to fill up my car!

drive for the ocean,
drive for the sea;
my wife and my babes
no more will I see.

and when I am distant -
big sleep that I reach'd -
protect my loved ones
this alone I beseech!

------------
notes
Don't write poetry when you're depressed.

Again, I'm trying to get ahead this month. I could schedule them to print, but then I'd have to check, and I really won't have time as the end of the month approaches.

pix: http://deadlydragonsounds.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-archives-7-picture-sleeve.html

Friday, March 5, 2010

Welcome

I would like to take time to welcome a new friend to the number of friends, Dana.
A good time to join in. Soon we shall have poem #156 - 3 years worth - and the Poetry Powerball drawing will be held! With 7 members in the group, the odds are pretty good.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Fast Day 145 March 11 2010 {Richard Roe}

Richard Roe

we people looked at him:
as rain to earth
as river to sea
fast lightning of our desire!
drinking him in with
hickey eyes!

inexperienced in time
babies and shadow children,
wandering mendicants of our age:
the gods and scapegoats,
prince and thief, maid
and crone.

harvester with scythe
works in the fields:
rattler in the grass!
the feller's master stroke
of finality!
endlessly discussed...

bones of hand,
rings aquamarine,
and onyx eyes!

gazelle boy in the wild
ceded to the desert
and raised around the water holes
of Tassili N'ajjer...
Olive tree hearts
and desert wadi veins.

Abraham in the desert,
Haggar, mother of Ishmael
forgotten; would the Pequod
boldly go - cannibal ship,
chased with bones -
whereto no man before ?

rain to earth,
river to sea,
far horizon lightning.

babies are
shadow's kids...
beggars of fate,
gods and goats,
princes and thieves,
maids and crones.

bones of hand,
rings aquamarine,
and onyx eyes!

gazelles, eagles!
far-sighted hawks!
by gravity and fate!...
rattlesnakes and cobras,
and gravity and fate!
pallid blue rings
upon claws sardonyx!

-----------
notes

Roe is a name often heard in our days. Given the great deal of attention and discussion, one might think there was a good deal of poetry about Roe vs. Wade. However, I am not familiar with any, but I suppose it is out there.

hickey - either (1) a love hickey, or (2) Hickey in The Iceman Cometh.

bones of hand...etc.   "We all begin as a bundle of bones lost somewhere in a desert, a dismantled skeleton that lies under the sand."   Clarissa Pinkola Estes  - a quote which strikes me with awesome intentionality, although I have not read much else by this person.