1. strangerfruit
  2. Your Friday Poem

Your Friday Poem

By jlynch on October 13, 2006.

i-a21c19a4031da1f955469583011e010b-peace[4].jpg 

Our Lady Peace
Mark Van Doren, 1943


How far is it to peace, the piper sighed,
The solitary, sweating as he paused.
Asphalt the noon; the ravens, terrified,
Fled carrion thunder that percussion caused.

The envelope of earth was powder loud;
The taut wings shivered, driven at the sun.
The piper put his pipe away and bowed.
Not here, he said. I hunt the love-cool one,

The dancer with the clipped hair. Where is she?
We shook our heads, parting for him to pass.
Our lady was of no such trim degree,
And none of us had seen her face, alas.

She was the very ridges that we must scale,
Securing the rough top. And how she smiled
Was how our strength would issue. Not to fail
Was having her, gigantic, undefiled,

For homely goddess, big as the world that burned,
Grandmother and taskmistress, frild and town.
We let the stranger go; but when we turned
Our lady lived, fierce in each other's frown.

Tags
Poetry

More like this

A Hint of Rosemary
Witches, stew, and a battle... A well-timed meme floated into ScienceBlogs over the weekend, asking what advice we might have for our 12-year-old selves. This began as John Lynch at Stranger Fruit borrowed the survey question from Fark.com. Soon, others began to respond, including Janet at…
"Give Me A Head With Hair; Long, Beautiful Hair"
Mr. Z and I went to see "Quantum of Solace" last Friday night. The cineplex was packed and teeming with Twi-hards. I went into the bathroom and found three of them before the mirror, primping and fixing their carefully coiffed hairdos. And what hair they had! Long hair, thick hair, shiny hair,…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E.Taylor - Chapter 77
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 76 Table of Contents Chapter 78 Chapter 77 Unburdening, November 12, 2059 I was in a state by the time I arrived at Centre City. I half expected the eco-cops to tap me on the shoulder at any moment. Edie met me at the door. "I didn't expect you…
The Wasteful Dragon
What could a magnificent but arrogant dragon have to do with ecological change? Everything, perhaps, if we can be influenced by myth and metaphor. I won't be able to return to my series on urbanization for a day or two, so I've brought a few pieces out of the archive and dusted them off. First, I'd…