spoken word 'bourne
Saturday, May 30, 2009
we want poetry back: a poem
the messengers had children
the messengers had children
oh / greying guards at
the gates of lyric / saying
not on my watch
sonnets trained on the horizon
that’s right / the messengers had children
oh / old white men
who shot the messengers
& those (some come even
coloured or with breasts)
who bow to same
oh / you who killed poetry
marched pentameter poised across
the slaying fields of tongue
is a new dawn
the messengers had children
& the street poets have come
is a new dawn
the messengers had children
& those children have guns
is a new dawn
the messengers children have
become the messengers
& we / the messengers
want blood
you who guarded lined scrolls
& metaphored our distant dots with
squinting iambic eyes
but forgot to look (& after all
what kind of poet can’t see behind him?)
& while you slept we scaled
back fences / braved body rot
& still twitching casualties in
a beat battalion tip-toe
across forbearers screaming bones
oh / old white men & those
(some come even come young
coloured or with breasts)
who bow to same
we want poetry back / we
are the children you
left wailing / without a backward glance
oh / but when you cut down word
the roots undergrounded
& grew
& oh /real poets / you did not think to drown
the messengers children
did you?
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Strength, tenderness, liberation songpoems. And behind all of your work a sense that the time (your time, the time for this poetry) is now.
ReplyDeleteThank you Paul. Someone at an Emerging Writers Festival event last week described my poems the other night as 'anthems'...it's interesting because when I read more personal pieces, people seem to rave about them. I guess in a way I feel funny about posting any of those poems here...partly because it's difficult for me to see what other people take away from them. I'm trying to post work that can (hopefully) reach through the screen and grab people by the collar like: 'Come on, hey you, poet person, I want YOU!'... :)
ReplyDeletenice one maxine. yes, it is the time for the street poets to raise their hands and creat things on other levels too.
ReplyDeleteA very good piece of work. Keep writing.
ReplyDeleteMaxine... I want to shout this out, in fact, I will read this at the opening of the next SpeedPoets event here in Brisbane. A magnificent call to arms! Have a great time on radio with Santo!
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say, Paul, the time is ripe for all of us. Now. Shields up everybody, let's rush 'em!
Hi Graham, thanks for visiting my blog. I love that you want to use the poem as a Call to Arms. Scream it. Wail it. Sing it. Weep it! It's yours. Would that I could be there for the event.I've heard a lot about SpeedPoets (& Small Change, of course). Your name has been like a refrain to me for about eighteen months now, and now our words finally cross.
Beautiful and angry Maxine, loved the concept, of the messengers,
ReplyDeletei believe changes take ages, or else changes take children :(...
And children take ages, and changes age children :)
ReplyDeleteThis poem makes me want to march up and down the streets... your trademark passion is flowing thoughout, Maxine. It is a call to arms, a call to write, a call to leave a mark of existence and a prayer for validation. Superb.
ReplyDeleteAnother powerful piece. Love the flow.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should arrange a conference-cam & all chant it at each other over cyber-space. Not that I even have a web-cam, but I'd get one, just for that.
ReplyDeleteROTFL yes yes
ReplyDelete