[Robert E. Jordan]

Since it is illegal to post the poetry of members in the Musing on Mastery forum, I’ll post these two grand poems from David Gwilym Anthony’s wonderful little book “Words To Say” here.

These are two of my favorites, and express my own worldview in so many ways.

Buy the book.

Bobby

Bloodlines

They're pictured wearing baubles carved from bone,
woad-daubed and fur-clad, flaunting tribal scars.
Such disrespect - such crude depiction - mars
the memories embedded in the stone
and in my blood, my every chromosome.
Why paint their culture worthless next to ours,
those men who traced the movement of the stars
and built Stonehenge before the birth of Rome?

Their mysteries live on within each cairn
and megalith, though little else remains:
like us they learned what pride and progress cost.
If we could call their spirits to return,
would they stand silent, awed by all our gains –
or stricken, seeing everything we've lost?

Who'll Hold Their Hands?
(on the murder of Jamie Bulger)

Sometimes an image strikes a shocking blow.
I've seen deceit, concealed beneath fake care,
cut like a whip and strip the senses bare.
A bitter man's betraying kiss was so;
or two unruly boys on video -
ignored by passers-by (not their affair) -
who held a toddler's hand and led him where
there are dark truths we do not choose to know.

'Hanging's too good!' 'They don't deserve to live!'
(But whose is the betrayal we recall?)
Did Christ, the friend to thief and fugitive,
greet Judas' kiss with empathy or gall?
They were our sins and so we can't forgive:
Just ten years old! May God forgive us all.



[This message has been edited by Robert E. Jordan (edited September 02, 2004).]

[Roger Slater]

You have a very discerning eye indeed, though you could have posted any two poems from the book and not gone wrong. It's a wonderful book.

[Janet Kenny]

I agree with both of the above posts. I wrote an inadequate but sincere review of the book for Amazon.
Janet

[oliver murray]

Yes, I have "Words to Say" and the poems Bobby has picked show David at the top of his considerable form. I heartily recommend the book

[wendy v]

I'm a fan, too. Here's my favorite in the book, and one I read to my two kinderschnitzels just a couple of weeks ago:


Water Bearer

Each dawn before the sun devoured the shade
and seared the arid land, a potter strode
down to the well along a dusty road
to fill a well-used water jar he'd made.

As he returned one day a stranger said,
'Your jar is fractured. Anyone can see
you waste your time and labor fruitlessly.
The water spills along the track you tread.'

The potter answered, 'Though it leaks, it still
retains enough for me and I would not,
for all its flaws, discard my battered pot.
It has a special purpose to fulfill.'

Where he had passed a radiant display
of flowers danced to greet the breaking day.

[Jerry Glenn Hartwig]

If we each post our favorites, no one will have to buy the book. But since these are already online:

A Few More

[David Anthony]

I'm a rare visitor here, and only just noticed this.
Many thanks for the kind remarks.
Best wishes,
David