Sonnet

[arisbe]

Bab El, the Gate of God, fallen indeed,
The common tongue remembered, speaking of
Ancient forgotten mysteries, our creed.
Words come to their senses, even love.

I turn away from the cremation ground
That burns from summer's end to winter's start,
And walk, perplexed and soulsick all around
The cityscapes in which I lose my heart.

We build again, more humanly this time,
And mindful of the holy ground we tread.
I raise my little towers out of rhyme
Fearful lest something might be left unsaid.

For death, that took these quick, still waits for me
And I must earn my freedom to be free.

---

© 2002 FP Purcell

Comments

question..

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I like it and glad to see it in print as hope
to see your poems more fully in print some
day, but I am not sure the first thought
of line one flows easily into the second of
the folloing line where I suppose a centrifugal
force is working... no suggestion really
unless it be 'and yet' for indeed...
and I may be way off the mark anyway
on this.
+Seraphim.

Re: question..

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

If the building of Babel leads to the scattering of tongues, then surely the fall of Babel (Revelations) leads to a universal Pentacost, no?

If the urban renewal of the '60s and '70s drove us apart, surely common adversity draws us together.

Archbishop John spoke of being (re)baptized in the Cathedral at 225 West 69th, now a playground for the upscale children of Lincoln Towers. Urban renewal as ethnic cleansing. When I walk through my trendy neighborhood, I often think of the homes of working people and their houses of worship destroyed to make room for it.

problem I see with that

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

problem for me ,maybe not anyone else
but, I think of fall of tower of babel and dividing
of tongues not just of rise of babel. I mean the
original one fell too etc +S.

Gosh, Bish

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

It's only a poem, after all. Cut us a little slack. Next you'll be pointing out that the last lines of the next sonnet don't really rhyme, as I realized on the subway tonight.

Besides, in the use of the American Orthodox Church the House of God, the trump of the tower struck by lightning, is the icon of Pentacost. As I learned in Pleasantville a year or so ago...

sorry

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

Im kinda simple with poems and sense
and try to bridge all the dots, chico's
poetry is more symbolist and when I ask
him even he doesnt know what the symbols
symbolize and I dont think mallarme did
either and I respect that just have kind of
a plodding mind in some if not I hope quite
all ways...+Seraphim.

A plodding mind

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Why is everybody always plodding against me?