Legalize love,
embrace light,
realize life ~
happens.
In each breath and each exhale
of this time,
spent 'this side of the veil.
Drink and remember,
eat this December
dismember,
your memories
of like melodies;
spent;
in quiet anticipation
of the lungs that deflate
by bullets fear tipped;
as full metal jackets
drown out the racket;
of rhetoric.
Regurgitated,
and mixed with molasses
while we sit...
With pen in hand
and thoughts in trance;
incidental metallurgy,
what's to disturb
this surgery?
Think, drink, link,
and connect;
dissect,
your mind-view
of what is your purview.
This life,
This love,
This light,
Drink and remember,
that long July,
when first She was;
our Mother's milk.
america,
America,
God shed his grace on tea?
America,
america,
truth be told ~
you live and die
in me
in she
in he.
in peace we rest
though we fail the test,
to be...
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Anne Cameron Cutri
Penrose
the Zen Haitian
mamoore
Coyote Sal
Geraint Isitt
Salon.com
Comments
I would love to hear this performed/read in front of an audience - it's got such a great groove, and powerful, powerful message. This is the poetry that could save us all, sometimes I think. "Legalize love, / embrace light, / realize life / ~ happens."
Amen.
sweetfeet! I can definately appreciate that a bunch :) - thank you!
peece!
dj
Melissa: But how irrational to think there are forms of love that aren’t recognized as “legal”—and yet there are, and it is irrational!
Michael: Yes, it’s love that compels someone to give the flowers of a prohibited plant to someone in pain. And it’s love at the heart of people who simply want to have what everyone else has: the right to be married. I don’t know what I would do if we couldn’t be married.
David: “realize life ~ / happens.”
Melissa: Love the use of the tilde! I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that used in poetry.
Michael: What does a tilde mean?
Melissa: Whaddyou mean?
Michael: I mean, what does a tilde mean in the same way that what does a period mean, and what does an exclamation point mean? A period means you’ve ended your sentence. You’re done. An exclamation point means it’s said with excitement or is a command. What does a tilde mean?
Melissa: Well, it could mean a lot of things, but it often denotes a certain inexactitude. Not quite equal. Sort of.
Michael: Almost?
Melissa: Yeah. Or here, in this poem, it’s like the wave of time, a pause before the inevitable “happens.”
David: “as full metal jackets / drown out the racket; / of rhetoric.”
Melissa: I like how the “rhetoric” is separated from the bloody reality of war in the previous stanza. There is a clear delineation between the people suffering the fatal results of the rhetoric, and those who spout off safely about war on Capitol Hill.
Michael: I especially like the double entendre of “racket”—meaning both excessive noise and in the way Smedley Butler described war—
Melissa: Yes, War Is a Racket! I hadn’t even thought of that. And look how it goes from lowercase “america” to capitalized “America” and then capitalized “America” to lowercased “america” in the next stanza—paralleling the birth and rise of the nation, followed by its zenith and subsequent decline.
Michael: Molasses-sweetened regurgitation is as perfect description of political speak as I’ve ever heard.
Melissa: Euuh. Right. And the molasses also makes me think of the blood spilled by the “incidental metallurgy.” The abominably tragic disconnect between those who wield the pen signing the decree and those who “live and die” by that pen’s poison-tipped blade.
David: “God shed his grace on tea?”
Michael: This immediately made me think of the so-called “tea-baggers,” who I’m sure are convinced God is on their side.
Melissa: It made me think of the Boston Tea Party.
Michael: Well, that was the idea behind the tea-baggers. It was a modern-day “Boston Tea Party.” Except, instead of raiding the British East India Company’s ship in protest of the tea tax, this was about taking a teabag they’ve purchased from a corporation and using it as a sign of rebellion. Rebel, Inc.
Melissa: Yeah. Astroturf-style.
David: “though we fail the test, / to be...”
Michael: It’s good to know that whatever we are to be, we will fail. It takes the pressure off!
Melissa: Hahaha.
Melissa: But how irrational to think there are forms of love that aren’t recognized as “legal”—and yet there are, and it is irrational!"
Very true - what should be a given is Not.
"Michael: I mean, what does a tilde mean in the same way that what does a period mean, and what does an exclamation point mean? A period means you’ve ended your sentence. You’re done. An exclamation point means it’s said with excitement or is a command. What does a tilde mean?
Melissa: Well, it could mean a lot of things, but it often denotes a certain inexactitude. Not quite equal. Sort of."
You both are amazing :) - but yes - 'sort off' covers my tilde use. As does 'pregnant pause' ;P really, though, 'not equal' but sort off covers it all if it was allowed.
"And look how it goes from lowercase “america” to capitalized “America” and then capitalized “America” to lowercased “america” in the next stanza—paralleling the birth and rise of the nation, followed by its zenith and subsequent decline."
The rising action, the falling action - the climax? can't say - the "denouement"? can't know.
"Michael: Molasses-sweetened regurgitation is as perfect description of political speak as I’ve ever heard."
Thank you, Sir - but yes - sickly sweet.
"David: “God shed his grace on tea?”
Michael: This immediately made me think of the so-called “tea-baggers,” who I’m sure are convinced God is on their side."
Again, yes - as in - the absurdity? and the role given to 'God'? I can't help but watch, listen, and read.
"Melissa: Yeah. Astroturf-style."
Exactly lol!
"David: “though we fail the test, / to be...”
Michael: It’s good to know that whatever we are to be, we will fail. It takes the pressure off!"
Yes - definitely :) we fail to be what our 4 fathers and mothers have decreed and seen and bled for us to Be. As we fail our parents, perhaps we've failed mother Liberty - Mother America?
Peece, love you both :)
dj
"the lungs that deflate
by bullets fear tipped;
as full metal jackets
drown out the racket;
of rhetoric.
Regurgitated,
and mixed with molasses
while we sit...
With pen in hand
and thoughts in trance;
incidental metallurgy,
what's to disturb
this surgery?"
That really hits home with me. Maybe it's because I have this sense that, as I blog, as I WRITE about things, I should be DOING things.
Absolutely - that was my permeating feeling too - me too. ted, RIP, Us? not too many years left? I hope not, I hope we have many more to come. Just feels like after this last knight of 'Camelot' has fallen ~ that something left this plane of existence. May it return.
peece!
dj
Rated of course!
"Astroturf-style" whats that?
the last bit the assertion that we would still rest in peace no matter how much we have failed the test 'to be' makes me hope - that you are right...looks like the best of your poems read so far
Rolling! Yes - metaness adds to the dimension of the poem. Hope is still in the box :) thank you for your kind comments. "Astroturf" would be the opposite of "grass-roots" type movements. One is fake - astroturf, and one is real - grassroots. I guess it's more of a political term. A good example of an astroturf movement (in my opinion) is the tea-baggers. Basically fake movement made to look like the belief of a nation through media and concentrated 'posing' in strategic areas.
Robin Sneed! :) Thank you so much; always happy to read you enjoyed!
Gwendolyn Glover! Thank you for your comments, they are appreciated :) Thanks for stopping in again!
Athena Bradford! Always looking to express - thank you so much for your comment and reactions to this poem. It felt right :)
I really do appreciate all of you each and every time I attempt a poem. It really helps me grow as a person and as a would-be poet. I am in your debt - each of you. Know that this is sincerely heartfelt ~
peece!
dj
peece!
dj
peece!
dj