the outskirts of damascus

here we are ladies and gentlemen on the outskirts of damascus
where right this very moment a most amazing event is
taking place this man SAUL is getting the old one two
falls on his ass thrashes around in the dust for awhile
comes to and is completely blind blind as a bat blind as a wall

let us begin to understand the little change taking place in this man's life
OK SAUL that's enough

now ladies and gentlemen from this vantage point we can look
upon the ancient city of damascus

ease up there SAUL ease up buddy
it can't be that important

the SERMON delivered at mass today
in the huge concrete edifice known as
the BREUER church here at st johns abbey we were called to some attention
by an ordained minister of the UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

his claim for unity amongst christians zeroed right into
the event of PAUL on his way to judge the christians
and PAUL is caught at the crossroads by a different agenda all together

it was rather amazing to me to hear the words of this man
quoting the popes especially JP II
in regards to the paradigmatic quality of the
conversion of SAUL

the conclusion of the preacher on this conclusion of the
week of prayer for christian unity was
that a conversion experience equal to the force
presented to us in the account from ACTS of the APOSTLES
is necessary in our hearts and our communities

in quoting the encyclical (UT UNUM SINT -THAT THEY MAY BE ONE)
by JP II
the preacher today offered a statement to
the roman catholics sitting in the pews
which they perhaps would not have heard by
a catholic preacher
and the fact that it was a noncatholic using the words
of POPE JOHN PAUL II
added to the poignancy of the moment
the statement which bears upon us
equally as it does upon our cousins in the faith
of the denominations
(he the preacher took a moment to describe what he felt was most inimical to the union of the various christian faiths...he referred to it as DENOMINATIONALISM)
in the encyclical POPE JOHN PAUL II does not say that the conversion must be from the protestant end of things alone but it must apply to anyone
interested in the possibility of christian unity

the call today was for all of us to be open
to the possibility of something as traumatic as the experience of PAUL
perhaps not quite as dramatic
or maybe just as dramatic but played out over time
but that the experiences of awareness and faithfulness
might "open our eyes" one and all
to the work already begun by the HOLY SPIRIT
in bringing us together as one family in CHRIST

what will that look like?

let's try to imagine

yes we have a winner

i actually deliberated over this
more than i would have thought myself
capable

however

the winner of the a bewildering search
poetry contest is

G.M. Palmer

i (yes I) chose the sonnet because it possesses
for me a rich weave of thematic intensity
in a mere fourteen lines
and it rhymes
maybe i should have told everyone
of my predilection for rhyme
and structure
not that i'm not open to freer expression

once again i thank everyone
for submitting to my
excessive literary authoritarianism

the poem was recited today
in a concert
it followed a poem about nelson mandela

as i read the pome
i responded inwardly
to the "caution"
the basic warning about
hubris
a warning every president should hear

i was also taken a bit by the natural
images of hawks and swallows
which called me to reflect a bit
on the fact that hawks and sparrows
will be flitting about and gliding about
long after i depart this world

so GM if you are up to it
you are with this victory
appointed the poet laureate
of A BEWILDERING SEARCH

which means any poem you send me
i shall be obliged to publish

and kirby will feel obliged to weigh in on
any poem
somewhat too
i can't control him

beware of the jester
the most dangerous characters in
shakespeare

on to the inauguration

my bet is GMs poem is even better
the the hyped up one
by who is she (?)
elizabeth alexander

anyway

congrats

jh

SONNET

by GM PALMER

from Half A Year

If today is inauguration day
remember to turn off your televisions.
Don't read what the newspapers have to say.
Don't read the posts from academic prisons.
Don't listen to the hatemongers and their jive.
Ignore the fawning sycophantic crowd.
Look outside at winter, hard, alive.
Hear the news of the red-tailed hawks crying loud.
Tomorrow the written world will not see change-
but the sun will rise to an ever-changing song
over the crowds of swallows who arrange
a million brilliant patterns in their throng.
And those who feed from the cancer- trough of fame
will hang their bloody, blinded eyes in shame.

THE POET'S INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

what is the first poem you ever loved? Why?

i know there were poems before GUNGA DIN
but my father went through a rather long period
where GUNGA DIN (rudyard kipling) was what we got if we got
anything before going to sleep

then he went through an EDGAR ALLAN POE phase

but GUNGA DIN rings in my memory
of an early fascination with the power of words

something i read that may surprise people?

i can't think of anything

how important is philosophy to my writing? why?

i read in any given year a rather wide array of philosophical works
mostly focusing on the thought of thomas aquinas...yet keeping an awareness of
trends and interests of the modern day
i read philosophy because i believe that
thinking is the highest freedom known to mankind

who are some of your favorite non-angloamerican writers? why

john berger and claudio magris are my two favorite
european writers
i love borges
i recently became entranced in writings of
roberto bolan(y)o

do you read a lot of poetry?
how important is that to the writing?

i guess i read at least one pome a day
maybe more
i write poetry when i write
prose is a challenge


what is something people may assume you've read but haven't?
why haven't you?

i've been in numerous conversations
where the book THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS
has come up and i've at least nodded
in familiarity but actually have never read
the classic american text on economics
so there it's out
i've said it
ah what a burden has been lifted

there's a lot of philosophy
i've never read

my eyes are failing

how would you explain what a poem is to a 7 yr old child?

OK while you eat your cookie
i'm going to read this poem OK
and i want you to tell me what you
hear

"I think that i shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree"

' a tree is not a poem'

yeah i know but just listen
you're spilling milk everywhere
let me wipe that up

why do you suppose someone
calls the tree a poem?

'can i have another cookie?'

sure

why does someone write about a tree as a poem?

'maybe...maybe...slurp slurp...maybe he thinks
it's like music and the birds are in the trees
singing their poems'

i bet you can write a poem
yep
here's a piece of paper and a pencil
why don't you write a poem?

'i want to finish this cookie"

OK

tap tap tap tap tap tita tita tap tapity tap

OK
let's see if you can write a poem

'D o g Shit'

who taught you how to write shit?

'you did'

OK

that's a good poetry lesson for today
you're great

'can i have another cookie?'

sure

this method has been patented

do you believe in the ROLE for the POET?
if so, how does it differ from the ROLE of the CITIZEN?

the role of the poet is to live out a cruel fate
the cruel fate of learning to be a citizen
under the worst possible circumstances
the poet does the world a favor
when he/she refuses to take poetry seriously
and when she/he does as well engage in it
with the utmost seriousness
for it is at once the most silly
and the most necessary of actions
wrapped up in a matrix of
guttural presentations

word associations?

lemon: ade
chiseled: the other l
I: doubt it
Of: nothing comes to mind
Form: Substance

what is the relationship between the text and the body
in your writing?

i think that this has been exhausted
there's no point in writing about
the human body anymore
it's all been said
from the swollen toenail
to the braintumor
now the women have told us
just how the menses smells
now the men have described
their squalid bodies
it's over
let's speak of these things no longer

the body is irrelevant
i'm all for the rhetoric of
disembodied thought
a complete ignorance of the body
a complete naivte about the physical
human phlesh

only thoughts exist
only plato exists

although
aristotle would argue

monastic perspective

WHATCHYAMA CALLIT

here's a little story that ties into events
we've been weathering in the monastery of late

a rather well known monk who had been
president of the university here for the
past 17 yrs died after a short and dramatic
bout with a thing that killed him
it was a bit sad in that he had
been so vital so engaged in the life of the institution
and he was only 60 yrs old
and it would appear that the good lord
had decided this monk's walk in the vale of tears
could end...not without some considerable purgation at the end
he died of a malignant fast acting cancer
and the emotional and physical deterioration
was rather startling for all of us to witness

the morning of his death on the third day of christmas
there was an announcement on the abbot's bulletin board
and one of our revered novagenarians
fr george (age 91) was looking things over there
(fr george spent all of his priestly life
serving the people of the bahamas
his monastic life was characterized by mission
and to this day
if you ask someone in the bahamas if they know
fr george
i suppose if the person is over 20
they will will respond
and tell you he is a saint)

so as he's perusing the bulletin board another monk
comes walking up the cloister
and fr george turns to report the news of the death

(mind you the word went out far and wide around the world about this one)

fr george states in his humble
and elderly way
"did you hear that 'whatchyamacallit' died?? "

the irony here is that
the relative fame of the monk who died
didn't register with fr george
he doesn't see any monk as being
any more famous or interesting
than anyone else
he doesn't give in to even the
legitimate trappings of fame

may br whatchyamacallit rest in peace

POETRY CONTEST!!!

a bewildering search

is accepting submissions of poetry
to honor the upcoming inauguration

the rules

1) everyone gets to submit 1 and only 1 poem

2) i am the tyrannical poet king of this blog
i choose the winner

3) the poet must be willing to
recite the poem to the nation on inauguration day

4) all political sentiment is welcome

the poems must be posted on this comment stream

conquer the world
write poems

jh