Wow, I've been posting a lot lately. Never a dull moment in the life, let me tell you...I've been going through much of my old belongings while organizing everything in my new room.. you know the types of things; those stupid little momentos from high school like yearbooks, old college notebooks filled with research papers that I just keep saying "I'll just hold onto these... I found a book of poetry put together by myself and some of my classmates. My high school felt the need to enrich students with cultural opportunities, so we often had month long residencies in poetry, dance, and song-writing. The book, titled Concoctions from Everyday Life was created during one such residency. It's not a particularly great book, and everytime I see it I think of throwing it out but couldn't stand the thought of throwing out the poetry of some of my best high school friends, so I decided to rip out the poems I wanted and throw the excess away. I want to share two poems from the book. One of them was written by my residency group during a brainstorming session, and the other was written by me. (I actually wrote TONS of poetry in highschool, some of which isn't too bad... if you want to see it ask me about it!) (editing note: Blogspot apparantly doesn't like it when I try to seperate the lines, so until I have the time to edit the html to create spaces, // will be used to seperate each stanza)
This one was written by the group about our wonderful hometown, Kent OH. It's kind of cheesey, but I like it because now so much has changed that many of what we wrote about no longer describes Kent. It's a reminder of all the little things we used to take comfort in:Song of Kent
//
Meditate for a moment
//
This is a place where
ideas originate
from the vibrant minds
just passing through
//
Playing on sidewalks cracked
Playing on Kent State grass
Fraternity boys dancing in their underwear
//
From Brady Lake to Sugarbush Knolls
East side, West side, Kent's too small to divide
//
One dollar movies
and railroad tracks
walking with friends
and no destination
//
So many windows
to shops and to souls
Many faces in
downtown on halloween
//
Drinking water is alright
under bright traffic lights
Muddy polluted waters of the cuyahoga
//
Middle school productions
and Friendly's restaurant
Old masonic temple with
myths growing like weeds
//
Music lives everywhere
art lives around the corner
sister and brother, they go hand in hand
//
Get crew cuts at low prices
make lots of honest friends
educated people
with beer bellies
//
Meditate for a moment
//
enter into the warm, happy
peaceful music
song of Kent
//
Ok, now this is the one I wrote. No laughing... It's kind of freaky that I wrote this before the terrorist attacks on the world trade center, but I think I was actually writing in reaction to bombing Bosnia (I don't remember, it was a long time ago) Someone reading it now would think it is about the falling of the towers, but it was written in '98:
The Beautiful
//
The old woman
breathes the whisper of a prayer.
Elegantly poised,
she stares at the shoreline
taking it in.
//
Her pale green face
is wretched in anguish
as she silently cries out
the thunderous roar
of passive rage.
//
Her children weep uncontrollably
moaning their horror,
looking to their fallen mother
as she stands rigid,
gazing.
//
As the white smoke clears
from over crystal blue ocean,
she can see a crimson ribbon
running from coast to coast.
//
she will not be crippled.
she will not be lamed;
this weary mother
who stands, gazing.