I did promise some time ago to share--or threatened to share--some piece of poetry from the remote past.
This is actually the last poem I wrote, probably around 1988 on a visit to Phoenix during the dry season--actually there's not much else, climate wise; but it wasn't cool at this park; intolerable actually; and the only shade was this mesquite tree--more of a large shrub actually, as described herein.
One other hint: this meditation was the result of a variance in the Gospels, or so it seemed at the time. Did Judas die by hanging or by falling and herniating? The answer is probably both/and but there are other considerations: The first line actually refers to the lame man going "through the roof" to get to Jesus and the last line to the Festival of Booths and to Peter's mountaintop proposition to Christ.
As best I can remember that is...............
"Akel Dama"
There's a hole in the roof.
Why don't you send up your man to fix it?
The ground squirrel sprawls under the Australian mesquite
as if to straddle the entire adobe wall
and crush it beneath his silent gnashing of teeth.
Tiny birds, tinier leaves, flecks of sunlight
converge and the cavity is evacuated.
The seed pod is broken
its contents consumed
and you want to stay here?
Each tear is
preserved in the eyes of God
Each seed
dies drooping from the mouth of the earth
Each booth tilted and
pierced by its very foundation.
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I was completely at a loss as to the meaning of your poem until I took your clues to goggle. The title is a mystery as it is Aramaic for "Field of Blood". The field of blood is supposed to be a plot of land purchased with Judas' pieces of silver. It used to be a clay pit where potter's got their reddish clay, hence the name potter's field.
ReplyDeleteThe Festival of Booths was another mystery but as I found I have watched an Israeli movie that dealt with building a Sukkot as the booths are called and where religious Jews spend 7 days praying and eating in a homemade Sukkot in their backyards. I am thinking your Mesquite bush is a Sukkot where you sat and prayed and meditated.
Each seed dies drooping from the mouth of the earth
I have no explanation for this sentence or the one about the booth tilted and pierced by it's very foundation.
"Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies..."
ReplyDeleteMan has his ways...c.f. Peter's Proposal on the Mt. of Transfiguration. The feast of Booths was an established one to represent Israel in the wilderness. Peter's proposal died on the table/mountain. The foundations i.e. God's voice and order,do establish memorials but not sentimentally. And usually supercede them. The "3 Sheds" proposal is a superficial religious deformation taken out of context by men and made into shibboleths (pronounce that with yur Funk'n Wagnalls!) Other examples would be the brasen serpent and perhaps Gideon's ephod. They went far beyond their expiration date and became snares and idols to the people.
Not every seed prospers-- but all of them must die--eventually.
The foundation pierces the tottering huts placed upon it. Note also that the sukkot has to be replaced every year, not unlike the wedding huppah which has to be created anew for each couple--at least ours was!
The last line is, at least to me, the shock wave of the whole poem. It is a little bit like Lorca, if you will. Keep in mind that explanations of poetry, even beyond what the poet himself may know--plus I wrote this 13 years ago--do not suffice in any but the most severly structured poetry--which is a rare find these days, no? I am not capable of that kind of systematized expression. Even in music!
"Systematic theology"? Fine for some but there's too many of them to contemplate in my lifetime. I would prefer to be harshly corrected in my amateurism than to do what I was not designed to do. Adventure, peradventure ???!!!