Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Saints




Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I’m waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed.

Oh, when the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Oh Lord, I want to be in that number,
When the saints go marching in!

(quote from a Louis Armstrong's version.)


Wheel-fortune-ages-of-man-theophilus-wm-de-Brailes-c1240.jpg
Wheel of Fortune with scenes from
the life of Saint Theophilus the Penitent


Midweek Motif ~ Saints 

Today, our minds may be on saints (All Saints Day), our dearly departed (Day of the Dead), or living persons we venerate, or not.  Who is (or was) a saintly presence to you?  How does the idea of sainthood enter your life?

Your Challenge:  In a new poem, narrate an encounter with a saint.


Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhi in 1940.
👼


When no one else would listen, Saint Anthony
preached seaward, his words fishnet for the lost
souls of the heretics. Caught up in despair, we plea
to the one who will listen: Saint Anthony,
please return Tía’s teeth or the misplaced key 
to our bolted hopes. Patron retriever of all we’ve tossed 
when no one else would. Listen, Saint Anthony,
teach us to steward this world, all our netted loss.

(Used by permission.)


When I went out to kill myself, I caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
Running to spare his suffering, I forgot
My name, my number, how my day began,
How soldiers milled around the garden stone
And sang amusing songs; how all that day
Their javelins measured crowds; how I alone
Bargained the proper coins, and slipped away.

Banished from heaven, I found this victim beaten,
Stripped, kneed, and left to cry. Dropping my rope
Aside, I ran, ignored the uniforms:
Then I remembered bread my flesh had eaten,
The kiss that ate my flesh. Flayed without hope,
I held the man for nothing in my arms.


St. Francis and the SowMollie Hosmer-Dillard (2012)
(Used with Permission)


👼

. . . . 
as Saint Francis 
put his hand on the creased forehead 
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch   
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow   
began remembering all down her thick length,   
from the earthen snout all the way 
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,   
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine   
down through the great broken heart 
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering   
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them: 
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

19 comments:

  1. May we all walk in saintly ways on this All Saints' Day!

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  2. Wishing you all a blessed All Saints Day :)

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  3. May the sinners amongst us become more saintly and may the saints sin a little, for unless one sins, one cannot become saintly...

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  4. The more I think about it, the more I like the concept of saintliness. I confess I came here prepared to disparage it, but reading these poems and writing mine changed me. Ha!

    Have a good day, poets united!

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  5. A blessed ALL SAINTS DAY to all

    much love...

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  6. Happy All Saints everyone! hugs and kisses, me.

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  7. I am going out for a walk in the sunshine as have just received news of a death this morning, that of our last little dog, Blakey, the last of our pack of five. I will be back later on, my friends.

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  8. I think I veered a bit off topic, but I gave it a try.

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  9. Happy All Saints Day, and Happy Day of the Dead!

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  10. I will read and try to write tomorrow, friends. It has been a quiet sad day. Will be back.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, Sherry.....that doesn't sound good!

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  11. Thank you Sherry for encouraging me. Know my thoughts are with you.

    Thank you Susan for the inspiration.

    Read a few, and will swing back through tomorrow.

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    Replies
    1. SO happy that you linked, X.......your poem is a wonder. So lovely to have you back among us.

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    2. Ah it was your encouragement that got me here.
      I will be around, but most likely during the week and not in large link ins.

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  12. Took me a while, but I managed to pen some thoughts! Belated All Saints Day....but then again we can recognize saints every day!

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  13. Susan,
    This is an interesting prompt and I have approached it from both saint and sinner; contrasts and connections.
    I know that November is also the month of All Souls..and the 6th November..feast of All Saints of Ireland:)Lots in mind. Eileen

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  14. I am late, but glad to be here. Thank you Susan for a lovely prompt!!

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  15. Has anyone heard from Jae Rose?

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