Monthly Archives: January 2008
Poem: The Drunken Soldier
THE DRUNKEN SOLDIER
The drunken soldier broke down
the wrong door
Inside was a circle of saints
lifted off the ground
To the sound of gunfire
a really supernal yellow light
shone round them
His jaw dropped
and his heart stopped
In the dark of the room
he saw his place
At the cost of so much blood
so little decency
The saints admitted him
to their convocation
The rest of the world went
dizzily into the background
The rest of the war popped in his
ears like distant fireworks
The young soldier
lifted off the ground
Suddenly his age didn’t prevent him
from becoming ancient
The hearts in that room
were made of bronze and
royal copper
In their burnished surfaces
the Face of God shone resplendently
The drunken soldier
broke down the wrong door
Inside was a family of saints
huddled together
In the death of decency
so much bloodshed
The circle of saints
admitted him to their company
The drunken soldier
broke down the wrong door
Inside they
broke bread
1/22/2008 (from The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak / Tall Tales in Short Takes, in progress)
Poem: Lake on a Hill
LAKE ON A HILL
Is a lake on a hill closer to God than a
lake on a plain with its
bright reflective waters?
Is the dial on the watch of a saint
closer to true time than the
dials of the rest of us?
Is the night longer or shorter for
one who believes or one who disbelieves
that at the farthest end of it a glorious oasis arises?
(Slender palm trees there bend and tremble in the
sweetest wind)
Is the voice of the Beloved
licked inside our ears
clearer than our own voice and the
voices of others on the outside?
Is outside any different from
inside in God’s Eyes?
1/15/2008 (from The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak, in progress)
Poem: Ladders
LADDERS
for John Heron
Some ladders go up some ladders
go down
It’s true! Of course all ladders intrinsically
go both ways
both up and down
though we prop one up to climb out of
somewhere or
put one down to climb down into somewhere
But in both cases we’d climb back down or
back up unless we can keep
going at the level we’ve climbed up or
down to without needing to return
The tall wind-blasted fairy-castle caves at
Capadoccia in Turkey have ladders going way up
then precariously down
We had to climb down to prophet Daniel’s
supposed tomb on Prophet Daniel Street in Alexandria
then had to clamber precariously up
It all depends where we begin
down or up and where we need to go
up or down
Oh and take a ladder when you leave this poem
would you?
Climb up there and see if
anyone’s listening?
12/29/2007 (from The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak, in progress)
