sw00716v-26.poem24

Venturings



 Homily


To Russia:

Land of decorous onion domes and broken French,
tundras taigas taigas / steppes steppes steppes,
scything dissent / hammering the good truths home,
deep with the beauties of earth / shallow . . . of power,
your harsh infected triumvirates of 55 years/ have so
enslaved themselves to a way, they have willed them-
selves eternity and the adoration due a god.  Nothing
escapes them.  They have organized to save.  But their
hands are far too heavy.  And humanity, inherently
weak, has toppled in blood in their wake.  Russia,
mightiest land where Occident and Orient meet, I
give to you a mountain spring--for your renewal.


To America:

Land of tall thin buildings and tortuous activity,
valleys mountains deserts plains, striping dissent /
starring the good truths home, deep with paraded
beauties / shallow, your bright and clouded presidents
have carved for you a twisted trail and left you
out of focus.  You are stumbling into holes.  And
humanity, though desiring to be strong, is quickly
going mad.  America, grabber of wealth and planter
of compassion, I give to you a noonday sun--
for your revision.


To China, Japan, West Germany, and each other nation:

There is no turning here we cannot overlook; no
turning we can afford to.  But man is what he is,
a creature of longing and of fear / a creature of
polarities / an envisioner of perfection / a fragile
leviathan, and he cannot come to terms with his
condition or the dilemmas of the universe without
pain.  Brain heart guts / flesh and transcendence,
each of you must balance the elements, and contemplate
the natural and contemplate the made, and somehow
with the fact of constant change discover how to
achieve the most autonomy for every living man and
simultaneously the most control over the entire
radiant human race.  I give to you a krinkled leaf
and these considered words--for your awareness.


To everyone:

Your stubborn soldierings of your ideologies are
destroying you.  This wondrous marble quakes.  The
flowers stand straight from fear.  Your blitzing
and bombing does no good.  Look in the ancient glass.
Inhabited by that fiercest devil, Unquestioned Pride,
crouched like a cornered beast, you are driving a nail
through the heart of this world.  You are emptying
your home. 




(original date of composition uncertain, but probably in 1972 or 1973)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert