Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Republic of Poetry

Filed under: Art & Culture | Poetry — by Will Kirkland @ 8:14 am
by Martin Espada

For Chile

In the republic of poetry,
a train full of poets
rolls south in the rain
as plum trees rock
and horses kick the air,
and village bands
parade down the aisle
with trumpets, with bowler hats,
followed by the president
of the republic,
shaking every hand.

In the republic of poetry,
monks print verses about the night
on boxes of monastery chocolate,
kitchens  in restaurants
use odes for recipes
from eel to artichoke,
and poets eat for free.

In the republic of poetry,
poets read to the baboons
at the zoo, and all the primates,
poets and baboons alike, scream for joy.

In the republic of poetry,
poets rent a helicopter
to bombard the national palace
with poems on bookmarks,
and everyone in the courtyard
rushes to grab a poem
fluttering from the sky,
blinded by weeping.

In the republic of poetry,
the guard at the airport
will not allow you to leave the country
until you declaim a poem for her
and she says Ah! Beautiful.

I’m off for the rest of the week with a couple of friends to a poetry festival in all places, Newark, New Jersey.  Many poets and story tellers in a format like a folk-festival.  Among the invitees – Martin Espada.  Expect some floating words…

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Words for Acts

It is impudent in the extreme for this man to go around Europe haranguing people on their duties to civilization when his own country presents one of the most lawless aspects of modern life the whole world affords.

Roger Casement
Irish Human Rights Champion

commenting on Teddy Roosevelt's 1910 Guildhall
speech telling Great Britain to either rule Egypt or get out.



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