Poetry
Open and Unafraid – W. David O Taylor
And while poets are “always telling us that grass is green or thunder loud, or lips red,” as C. S. Lewis once quipped, they are also always telling us that green is more than merely green, thunder more than simply Loud, and lips exceedingly red .
This is another way of saying that the world is more than just empirically classifiable stuff.
It is It is wonder-full stuff.
It is stuff that deserves our precious time and our loving attention.
Poetry . slows us down enough to give God’s world the attention it deserves.
[For people who know Steve Elliott, it will be no surprise that he is, in addition to other admirable qualities, a poet. His poem, “The Voice” gives credence to David Taylor’s insights on poetry. ]
The Voice
(Overheard at the Nicholasville Walmart @ 8:15 Sunday night
… two old ladies leanin’ on their shopping carts,
shifting their weight off their bad hips and knees from time to time,
talking about a friend who lost her voice.)
“Her voice just up and left.”
“Away it went …
life just put it on the R. J. Corman mornin’ train
and ran it right outta town!
(She mighta coulda caught it but she was asleep at the time.)
“Took most of her with it, too …
all the personality and possibilities,
…all her questions that can’t be answered
and all her sassy talk, of course.
(She ain’t one to be tongue tied, know what I mean?)
“Who’s she gonna be with no voice?
If she ain’t tellin’ ya what’s goin’ on inside her
she just might burst into itty bitty pieces of herself.
Mercy, it is bewilderin’!
(But everything about her is bewliderin’, if you get my meanin’.)
But gone is gone …
as gone as that cat what got run over on Main St. on Tuesday
… as gone as that big rain we had last July.
As gone as gone can be … but don’t gotta’ be gone for good, do it?
(All good things have a way of comin’ home again, don’t ya think?)
“‘Cause I told her that there is a 3:10
that gets in on Thursday from Kansas.
But you gotta meet it at the station
or it’ll just roll on by.
(Kansas is always the last place you look for a lost voice.)
She ain’t talking today but I sure hope she’s listenin’.
‘Cause I told her “You best make up a sign” I said.
“Askin’ the conductor if there’ a lost voice on board.
Your hand-waving silence ought to let him know it’s yours.
(The conductor has a soft heart. He’s from Garrard County.)
“And tell him it comes with a big load of ‘in your face’ back talk.
So you just might wanna take your brother-in-law’s pick-up
to carry it home.
(Just sayin’…)
SVE Dec. 2017