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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Xenophilia

I. Sower

In the crinkled-up inkling of a question...

Cracked voices found me
as they fled throats full-
filled with a caked red dust

Their fleet pleas hounded me:
“Don’t forsake this stony ground.
Lay on patient hands

“Bone-hard, break it. Uproot
its thorns. Distract the birds
toward other pursuits”

I soaked in their shattering
chorus, then it fell – silence.
Someday my plants will come

II. Soil

In the lush crush of hushed hours...

The come-as-you-go wind came
and she scatter-rained
the sparkly seeds she carried

Maybe she had no plan, or
maybe the plan was to sow
her songs chaotically

Either way, she graced me
with one seed to grow. If I can
tend it ever so tenderly

Its complexity will push
through headlong to bear fruits
and miraculous perplex me

(Inspired by the Parable of the Sower, and a continuing conversation with a friend)

2 comments:

human being said...

a big yes to this great work transcending a prabale that can be misleading to the ego...
this poem brings out the true nature of human creation... the union between two strange forces... thus the title of this poem is a kind of manifesto...

yes
why should we mind the the ground we scatter our seeds on?
who are we to judge which soil is suitable?
all seeds grow
all seeds have a journey from death to life
all seeds are love
if they are devoured by the birds
they grow into a beautiful flight in the sky
if they are left on hot stones to scorch
they become the food of marching ants who decompose the dead skin of life
or they enrich the soil to feed other seeds
if they are trapped between hard stones
rain may awaken them to root and break the stones into pieces
giving way to a sturdy plant which knows how to fight for life
or to a little brook to flow along

seeds grow in all soils
the only life force in the cosmos
that is love
is hidden in them

let's scatter our seeds
our words
our love
anywhere
everywhere
all beings/things are interconnected
we will grow
through them
everything returns to us
nothing is lost
ever






conversation with a friend like you is a blessing, Francis...

Francis Scudellari said...

I think you may have to turn this comment into your own poem :). I love the ideas expressed in it. There could be a whole series written re-interpreting all of these parables (I've fooled around with a few so far). People take them literally as the "word of god" but the lessons they derive from them aren't necessarily what we need in today's world, and there are so many nuances that can be added to them.