Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Parableof the Poet
Parable ofthe Poet
It is not about money, fame or fortune.Not about ego, greed and domination. It is not about the teacher but thestudents who are taught the higher things of life, above the thingsbelow. It is not about attacking the politician, the man of religion oreducation, for there is a duty that comes to the poet--beyond nurseryrhymes and beats, pussy and dick jingles and a turn of phrase, a cutemetaphor or simile.
It is beyond all this in the realm of thepoet man who stands on the corner at the gate of the city, enduring allthe pain of a people, the trauma, unresolved grief, the ignorance,abandonment of children lost to the street, the frustration of mothersand fathers bewildered with sons and daughters out of control, seekingtheir way in ways leading to nothingness and dread.
And so theycome to the poet for rhymes and reasons. I must talk with you right now,they say, mother and father anxious for solutions for daughters andsons lost in traffic, trying to find their way in the madness of thecity, in the darkness of the night.
The fog is in and they arebewildered by the mist of the fog. What is the meaning of manhood andwomanhood? It is a search for sexual identity with no rules in thehouse. The children become prostitutes yet too ignorant to make money.Young mothers with children come home without money for Pampers fortheir child. Young brothers are consumed by drugs yet say they arepimping in the night.
Gay and lesbian youth turn tricks for a bedon the floor or couch. Rejected by parents, they are prey in thestreet. Who really loves them, who really cares? Are they men, women,what is their identity? Some confused, tricked and lost on the way tograndmother's house.
We never imagined a mother could hate achild, a father could abandon a family for no price. And yet such is thetime and the hour of our need. Children can go nowhere, nor fathersand mothers, for they are caught in the conundrum of a spiritualitythat bonds one together when one is oblivious to the bond, when one isin denial and delusion. And so it is a mad circus with clowns allaround. The wise laugh at the circus come to town.
--Marvin X
7/15/10
https://theblacklist.net/
Comments