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“The Garden of Earthly Delights -- 2005”

by seanfarragher 

Posted: 13 January 2006
Word Count: 515
Summary: Hieronymus Bosch and “Ecclesia's Paradise”
Related Works: Birthday Poem 1-8-2006 Revised THIRD TIME • "The End of the World is Near" • “Magical Mystery Tour” REVISED • Books from the Bible • Hurricanes revised (7th) • Modern Man Discovers Dark Matter • Subterfuge -- Chapter One Genesis • Ten Short Poems • World War Family 1948 • 

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“The Garden of Earthly Delights”

I am not a Christian. Neither Jew nor Moslem
Hindu eroticism and Glorious Buddhist revolutions
stampede out of Grand Canyon to Sligo and pass
humble spirits to fall into every gorge of Mars
and every inferno of the last sun Dante painted --
intimate pubis and phallus celebrates
Hieronymus Bosch and “Ecclesia's Paradise” --
Our Apocalypse twists words and ferment
into portraits of the modern mind gone awry.


2.

I am discouraged, and the year 2005 now 2006
wiggles on a fisherman's hook at Calvary, in the
Underground and the septic Jazz of New Orleans.

Watch the bodies rise from the caves, the stones roll
back, and resurrection, redemption breathes solemn
terror as we walk softly away from retribution --
body armor and suicide bombs crafted as demons
with shellfish spirit rolls down funeral
march while Dizzy blasts his horn as Gabriel's twin.

Look in the dumpster for pieces of eight.
I saw golden teeth in that dead body left to rot --
an example of our common history. Study where
wheelchairs dangle from the balcony.

The elderly drown in the aftermath of levee break
where love blasts the beach and harsh
chemicals debrade skin as we rest with Tsunami codes.

Most complain that it is 2006 and romance
and destruction one year older is not predictable.
I could agree as the unknown, unknown has dark
circles under its eyes from loss of truth not sleep.

Write about now. Capture the present future
with rants and incantations dredged from muddy stems
of legs broken off just as flowers, past their prime
stuck in the earth to evolve again, fail.

Failure is grime and error, brutal mud God used
to fashion Adam from Eve and future disasters
from present prejudice and letters washed out of sand.

The bible's common history reverses ordinary placement
of time as a great forest fire creates new wood raised
out of our lassitude with renaissance sculpture pinched
in our mitts, -- when we stop, breath cannot follow suit
and we either fold or bust out of the game an irrational winner.

Some fake loss. We are sorry for them. Are we?

What red lips she had as she died so old in her hospital chair.

What if we could have rescued her, made her younger, alive
had her work the universe with all her joy revealed as spices
decorate mince pie, hot and fragrant, -- Yes, she
was so alive in sex years ago, the taste of her made
life worth living. Forget the Ministers and Priest.
Look at her hands wrinkled, frozen, dried as bricks
in straw and mud -- the walls of Sumerian city now void.

Life was found there in "Rosetta Stone" when
we chipped time from the edges of primitive bricks
We rub source and eroded mud through our fingers
as potters prepare clay to mime sexual parts
and the tactile spring of fingers to angels
fornicating on the outside of the forbidden forest.

Celebrate this rising of life from death again.
How much better the movie and collected dirty scenes.




XXX






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Comments by other Members



gard at 00:49 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
Beautiful Sean

G

Shika at 07:10 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
Hi Sean

There were so many lovely images and word play in this - 'septic Jazz' will stay with me for a long time - a real song of our times. S

joanie at 07:38 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
Hi Sean,

First, way back to your last question; yes, I think they work as two separate poems. It seems right to me that this is a separate post.

I like the spacing of this - I feel like I physically need time to take a breath, ponder for a second, while I'm reading your poetry. Especially
Some fake loss. We are sorry for them. Are we?

What red lips she had as she died so old in her hospital chair.
I was able to pause quite a while there and churn those thoughts over in my mind. (In fact, I found that the stand-alone lines made me do it!)

These are very thought-provoking lines; I am still coming back to re-read again and again because I find that I get more out of them each time.

I did like the opening of 2.
I am discouraged, and the year 2005 now 2006
wiggles on a fisherman's hook at Calvary, in the
Underground and the septic Jazz of New Orleans.


I shall continue to ponder all day, probably!

joanie





DJC at 07:38 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
It reminds me of contemporary Walt Whitman - a sort of 21st century 'Song of Myself'. Although I think it is more cohesive without the first section (which I hope you'll redraft into a poem in its own right), I still find it hard to work my way through. Working in this way, I see you do with much of your work, is such a challenge, as free verse is very hard to keep control over - it can become more free-association, which has its place in poetry, but needs to be tamed. I still think that there is work to be done here, to draw the images more closely together, or at least have one, dominant metaphor which permeates the others. I may be missing something or am not very good at reading this sort of poetry - and if so I apologise. I'm just trying to give you my honest appraisal.

gard at 12:33 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
Hi Sean

I am at Yale so near NY area. I spend my time between Yale and Harvard at the moment (collaboration) so things have been everso hectic (survival). I shall go to your magazine websites today I hope (sat) looking forward to it.


G

seanfarragher at 15:08 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
DJC, I appreciate your honest comments. Every critque is usefull when it is tendered with respect for poetry. Thanks

G, Harvard and Yale. I am a Columbia Alumni. I majored in everything there. I never knew that my study of Byzantium, the ancient Near East, Geochemisty, minerology and painting would influence my mature work. Actually, I find that my work now is better than the work of my college days. I have a daughter who is finishing up her MFA at the University of Montana, and I am amazed how much work stands out because she charts new ground at 24.

Joanie, you have a great eye for craft. Your help should be acknowledged. Thank You.

Shika, yes, "septic Jazz." What we have lost in New Orleans is beyond measure. Lives, environment and most of the politicans, Democratic or Republican have no idea how to recreate what evolved naturally through American history. I do not want to see New Orleans become another Las Vegas. I know there are real estate interests in Louisana who would love to buy this land cheap, turn part of it into a park (to cover their intentions) and then use the best of it as commercial space for gambling. I have nothing against gambling. I do not like it when those interests use a tragedy to forward their greedy ends. Fortunately, the people (who stayed or returned) are up in arms over these possiblities. Jazz is American Art much as Beethoven is European. Many of us will say that BUSH is naked and that the King wears no clothes, and that what he pretends to support does not reflect his agenda. Much of my poetry reflects this upheaval in American, and of course, terrorism (as the Underground and earlier IRA bombings) is not confined to one democracy.

DJC at 19:49 on 14 January 2006  Report this post
PS there are some superb poems in your magazines. Nice to see such a diverse collection - and I like the artwork linking to the poems in frigg.

seanfarragher at 00:20 on 15 January 2006  Report this post
Right here on this site is a good place to see my work. In the archives there are both old poems from my ancient history but mostly new work from the past year.

thanks

lieslj at 05:50 on 15 January 2006  Report this post
Profound and beautiful.

Well done, Sean.

Liesl

paul53 [for I am he] at 09:01 on 15 January 2006  Report this post
Hi Sean,
Now that this is a separate entity I can look at it without thinking about the former first part.
This is a great ride in tone and colour. Formerly, I might have been jealous or discouraged reading quality like this, but now it just spurs me to experiment and expand. Keep them coming.
Paul

gard at 00:08 on 16 January 2006  Report this post
Hi Sean

I love the front page of your december issue of Blast and really enjoyed the work inside too. It's a wonderful mix of art and poetry really nice. New and inspiring. Well done!

I am familiar with Columbia Uni though I have never been there. it is interesting what influences people's work. I read that I think it was Yates (not hundred percent sure) who wrote mostly from his early experiences i.e. memory when he got older. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on the name of the poet. Do new things insire us less as we get older?

G


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