[lit-ideas] Re: Fwd: How do we build on agreement? [Was Why philosophy?]
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:22:14 -0500
EY:
"It's also good to remember
that I am falling
That I am the reason
And that my words are the garment of what I
shall never be
Like the tucked sleeve of a one-armed boy.
[from “When You Go Away” -WS Merwin]"
Thank you for sending that. Merwin always amazes me, sometimes makes me
weep (but I'm such a wimpy, woosy, pussy when it comes to poetry). So too
does Mary Oliver who, though she's found God, still writes puncturing poems
such as:
PRAYING
It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
I cry too over my own poetry, par exemple:
GUERILLAS IN THE MIDST
Bang, bang.
A super bad-ass gang
of gang-bangers are we.
Driving down town
is fun when you hit all the lights
just right,
go from Poplar Avenue
to
Calhoun
without ever having to stop
even once
stop and sit there at a red light
like a loon
standing on one leg.
Life is good in the hood.
We stop at the Arcade
drink coffee and talk for an hour
about geo-political realities and plague-infested fleas,
and, of course, the variations of liberation theologies
and whether if someone were squeezing your balls,
they could make you get down on you knees
and bark like a seal and then piggy-like squeal
(most of us gang-bangers are guys, you gotta understand).
We talk tough talk, no doubt about it:
we talk about putting an end the occupation,
and what to do if you feel the call to priestly vocation,
and where would you go if you could afford a vacation.
To a brothel was the consensus
(most of us gang-bangers are guys, you gotta understand).
Then we give the secret handshake and part.
The handshake -- that's the art of being a part of something important.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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