Strange Martyrs
NEW VERSION OF “STRANGE MARTYRS”:
Reverse: to fresh begin my journey home!
For home I’ve come yet home from me has flown.
I lay another human form atop
soft-sanded river bank, and obols* drop
by twos and threes as boney fingers clack
and clatter, closing. Smuggled in a sack
of burlap across dark waters I glide.
No use. One cannot from oneself well hide.
When dead, as yet again I am, a heart
is bare and yearns to share, not stand apart.
When torn from mind-in-body, souls admit
what flesh pretends away. They say, “I quit
all meanness, cruelty, greed, despair. I need
community where all together feed
upon love’s feast and laugh; are friends and glad
to share with all; and withal never mad.
No soul refuses any soul at all.
And least of all could God a soul not call.
All are invited; all must par-tay**
yet souls who’ve broke love stay away
the reason is simple; it’s nothing deep;***
they’re just unready for God their soul to keep.***
So don’t build a bonfire around my broken head
and rally anger to burn children in their beds.
Remember those moments when I was kind;
build your flames about the harmless times,
when I was young and smiled in the wide summer light
grateful for friends, to run and play into the night
[Notes:
*”obols” were the coins traditionally given to Charon by dead souls for ferrying them across the River Styx
**”all are invited; all must par-tay”
See “Nabarismo” (esperanto for “neighborism”, film by Tom Watson and others (is there a copy anywhere anymore?)
poem was mostly heroic couplets, but dissolved its rigor at the end
***the reason is simple; it’s nothing deep;
***they’re just unready for God their soul to keep.
In the morning light, the Poetry Review Board has isolated these two lines as being particularly potentially possibly aesthetic and metaphyiscally problematic.
A gentle reminder to the Gung Ho Department while we carry out our difficult and careful task: Stop posting things to social media on the same day you right them!!!!
]
ORIGINAL REVISED VERSION
In the space after life
as Kindness rushes in
out past timespace
where madness mists away
I’m caught deep
Please no more
world-leader-pretend
I await them here
our estate now clear:
all creatures all are friends
Please great God
greater than my wildest
speculation
gentler than my mildest
countenance
Please
forgive
unhook us
this pointless
back and forth
digging madly
backwards
That we become
a tale of wisdom
of clarity
a poem beyond power
outside hope
other-siding fear
bring us back to you.
That all people rise up
in one embrace
that their leaders bow down
before gentle resolve
seven billion
heart-sick of lies
follies, wrongs
Let kachinas
fill the skies
help us evolve
I pray that you God
make things better than I did
that you bare the Light I hid
share the song
within me all along
Please
let me die
into Beauty
MOST ORIGINAL VERSION THAT IS STILL IN WORDPRESS’S MEMORY
In the space after life
as Kindness rushes in
out past timespace
where madness mists away
I’m sorry broad
caught deep
Please no more
world-leader-pretend
I await them here
where all is clear
where love does not end
Please great God
greater than my wildest
speculation
greater than my mildest
countenance
Please
forgive me
release us
of
this pointless
back and forth
digging madly
backwards
That we all
together become
a tale of wisdom
a song of clarity
a poem beyond power
outside hope
other-siding fear
bring us back to you.
That the people rise up
as one embrace
that the leaders bow down
before their gentle resolve
these seven billion
heart-sick of lies
follies, wrongs
Let kachinas fill the skies
set us free to evolve
I pray that you God
make things better than I did
that you bare the Light I hid
that you share the song
within me all along
Please
let me die
into Beauty
Authors: AW/BW
copyright: AWW