Saturday, August 2, 2008

folly :/{the freedom & civil rights movements}

not distinguishing
first person singular
from third person plural
peculiar grammar

where the punctuation
was the hope and struggle
the idiom was pain
the syntax was a dream

luther king and gandhi
their obtuse expression
the folly of a tongue
where "i" stood for ' them'

they stood for liberty
La langue d'amour

../original/z.g.

15 comments:

  1. What an amazing, symbolic overlay! Comapring the rigours of grammar with legendary leaders is quite remarkable! Loved this! It needed a couple of reads to allow all the allusions to sink in!

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  2. Truth spoken, no matter how poorly constructed, loses none of its beauty. Our ears delight in the hearing of it!

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  3. fools for love, brilliantly done.

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  4. Deeply thoughtful. Very interesting and clever conflation of grammar and the social/political action of these great human beings. I especially like this stanza:

    where the punctuation
    was the hope and struggle
    the idiom was pain
    the syntax was a dream

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  5. Life is language, really. And grammar, the context. So important. This is a tour de force, a wonderful poem about language and freedom. And I and them. Thanks.

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  6. Profound and beautiful. Your thoughtfulness is shown so well!

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  7. This is, I think, my fourth time coming to this one, experiencing it from different angles, so to speak. Like Raven said, "deeply thoughtful." I don't think I could say it any better. Well done!

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  8. You have SUCH a wonderful way with words!!! I love reading what you write.

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  9. A wonderful poem. I remember during the CRM, how very carefully we used words, so as not to offend. It was a hard time, but thank god people were trying.

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  10. You've done a fabulous job with this. I love "where 'i' stood for 'them'."

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  11. the folly of passion, of dreams, of thinking we can make a difference (and actually making it happen!) Peace, JP/deb

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  12. ..deeply thankful to Everyone Of U..

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  13. Sorry to arrive late … delighted to have arrived at all. What an amazing poem … rich language and images resonating in my thoughts … beautifully conceived and created. Thank you.
    Hugs and blessings,

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..namastey!~