confessional poem #7

This is Constantine's artlog. He posted his poems in his own artlog forum for several years. He named the forum "Constantinople" and described it as "A byzantine journey through life's labyrinth."
Forum rules
To honor our site members who are no longer with us.
Post Reply
User avatar
constantine
Posts: 2677
Joined: March 9th, 2008, 9:45 am

confessional poem #7

Post by constantine » May 1st, 2013, 10:28 pm

ding-ding!
lucky seven confessional
you said you wanted honesty
and, by crackers
honesty is what you'll get
but first, let's talk about dodona
if you remember, in confessional poem #1 and #2
i briefly elaborated on the ancient oracle at dodona
with its sacred oak tree and barefooted
priestesses who wouldn't wash their feet
for reasons i already explained
i find this curious though i'm not sure why
and it makes me feel uneasy, like
i'm missing something, something important
something of consequence with ramifications for the future
for such is the nature of oracles, you never
understand them until it's too late
years ago, i saw an old man on the bus
only today did i realize that it was me
imagine how i felt

User avatar
stilltrucking
Posts: 20605
Joined: October 24th, 2004, 12:29 pm
Location: Oz or somepLace like Kansas

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by stilltrucking » May 6th, 2013, 5:36 pm

thank you for writing —

I read a poem last week that reminded me of you
"I ask him: How can we go on reading
and make sense out of what we read? —
How can they write and believe what they’re writing,
the young ones across the street,
while you go on pouring grape into ORANGE
and orange into the one marked GRAPE — ?"
http://studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25538

User avatar
constantine
Posts: 2677
Joined: March 9th, 2008, 9:45 am

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by constantine » May 6th, 2013, 7:52 pm

thanks, baltimore jack. is your profile pic one of you when you were doing the circus gig? neat poem by the way.

User avatar
stilltrucking
Posts: 20605
Joined: October 24th, 2004, 12:29 pm
Location: Oz or somepLace like Kansas

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by stilltrucking » May 7th, 2013, 2:32 am

Me standing in front of the double-decker tourist bus I drive.
here is the whole poem

After you finish your work
after you do your day
after you’ve read your reading
after you’ve written your say —
you go down the street to the hot dog stand,
one block down and across the way.
On a blistering afternoon in East Harlem in the twentieth century.

. . .

Frankfurters, frankfurters sizzle on the steel
where the hot-dog-man leans —
nothing else on the counter
but the usual two machines,
the grape one, empty, and the orange one, empty,
I face him in between.
A black boy comes along, looks at the hot dogs, goes on walking.

I watch the man as he stands and pours
in the familiar shape
bright purple in the one marked ORANGE
orange in the one marked GRAPE,
the grape drink in the machine marked ORANGE
and orange drink in the GRAPE.
Just the one word large and clear, unmistakable, on each machine.

I ask him: How can we go on reading
and make sense out of what we read? —
How can they write and believe what they’re writing,
the young ones across the street,
while you go on pouring grape into ORANGE
and orange into the one marked GRAPE — ?
. . .

He looks at the two machines and he smiles
and he shrugs and smiles and pours again.
It could be violence and nonviolence
it could be white and black women and men
it could be war and peace or any
binary system, love and hate, enemy, friend.
Yes and no, be and not-be, what we do and what we don’t do.

On a corner in East Harlem
garbage, reading, a deep smile, rape,
forgetfulness, a hot street of murder,
misery, withered hope,
a man keeps pouring grape into ORANGE
and orange into the one marked GRAPE,
pouring orange into GRAPE and grape into ORANGE forever.

Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America
Muriel Rukeyser’s “Ballad of Orange and Grape” can teach us something about the fundamental import of language. Charming and didactic, the poem asks what it means when language is allowed to be unreliable. What, it wonders, happens to culture then?

User avatar
constantine
Posts: 2677
Joined: March 9th, 2008, 9:45 am

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by constantine » May 7th, 2013, 7:59 pm

thanks for the turn on - i like it. oddly, i don't read much poetry, but it is cool when you read something intelligent without all the intellectual trimmings.

User avatar
judih
Site Admin
Posts: 13399
Joined: August 17th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: kibbutz nir oz, israel
Contact:

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by judih » May 7th, 2013, 10:46 pm

i confess that cool poetry is what makes reading worth doing.
thanks, dino
(&
jack)

User avatar
constantine
Posts: 2677
Joined: March 9th, 2008, 9:45 am

Re: confessional poem #7

Post by constantine » May 8th, 2013, 2:13 pm

hi judih!!

Post Reply

Return to “Constantinople – (A collection of Constantine's poetry)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests