Hi grasshopper,
Not much to say except this is really great! Gobsmackingly good! So 
energetic. So many deft touches:
"perhaps
a stroke of kohl, a dab
of myrrh, Emmanuel who wouldn't
shrink from a little moisturiser..."
(where dab is just a perfect word!)
and then:
"have done dark deeds
when the sun slept, turned the Red Sea
into burgundy and drunk and belched
and farted like a dreaming dog."
And how many other well-honed contrasts could I have chosen? (Plenty!)
My only queries... you write "temples" (plural) and I wonder if it 
should/could be "temple" and I can't find "Sissifactus" in any reference 
book I've got!


>From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Christus Sissifactus
>Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 09:23:02 +0100
>
>I've been absent for a while,and hope to be back later today, doing some
>critting. In the meantime, have at this...
>
>
>
>(NB. The title of this poem will alert you to the fact that some people may
>find it objectionable. If you feel you are one of these people,please don't
>scroll down. )
>V
>
>
>V
>
>
>V
>
>
>V
>
>
>V
>Christus Sissifactus
>
>
>I knew his toes were pedicured, his feet
>long, like his limbs, though
>Josephus says that he was squat.
>I saw him in my Bible, the nose
>aquiline, never hooked, the Gentile-est
>of Jews, a pale PreRaphaelite saviour
>in freshly minted nightgown,
>soft Dickensian eyes brimming
>with masochistic Messianic rapture.
>Hoist his hems and he'd be
>smoothly forked as a Kewpie doll.
>
>Too many images of a desert dandy,
>Christ the simperer, Christ
>coiffeured with pageboy bob,
>designer-sandalled, perhaps
>a stroke of kohl, a dab
>of myrrh, Emmanuel who wouldn't
>shrink from a little moisturiser
>to counteract the sandy winds.
>No wonder Nietzsche despised
>the dim defeated wretch.
>
>But what about Spencer's Jesus,
>thickset and Semitic? By God, that Christ
>might have roared, have done dark deeds
>when the sun slept, turned the Red Sea
>into burgundy and drunk and belched
>and farted like a dreaming dog. That Christ
>who cradled scorpions in his palm,
>could suffer like a man and bleed
>real blood instead of watered wine.
>
>That man, with rough love, could hoist
>the world upon his shoulders
>and grunt like Atlas. A man like that
>could make the Mount his sermon, resurrect
>the temples and hammer stars back into place.
>
>          (grasshopper)


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