Dear Gary,
I thinks this works pretty well except that I think the last strophe is far
too dense- as if you've tried to cram too much in. My personal feeling would
be that the poem might gain, rather than lose, if you omitted the last
stanza.
Shouldn't that be 'We suspect Cain fled there,' ?
Kind regards,
grasshopper
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Blankenship" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 4:17 PM
Subject: [THE-WORKS] Lessons
(as the dawg does so often ** blocks out italics)
Lessons
*the call
from ghostly ziggurats
"war, war, war"
Alexander
and Hulagu smile*
We are taught the first came from there,
civilization and kings,
writing, records and the law,
bread, flocks and the wine of life.
We are taught Abraham came from there,
that the two rivers flow from Eden.
We suspect Cain fled to there,
to Nod and Enoch, the city of his son.
*the babble
of rotting corpses
'revenge"
Armenian, kulak,
the sons and daughters of Joseph cry*
We are told the last battle will be
fought on the plains of Megiddo.
Today, I hear it on my radio
from the swamps of Shatt al-'Arab.
*sandstorms
muffle the call to prayer
smother the cradle
with the smell of almonds
and hammer of ploughshares
pounded into swords*
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