I’ve Simplified My Case to Mother Earth

Reading from Like A Bird Knows To Sing

I once again read from my second collection of poems, Like A Bird Knows To Sing. The video was filmed and directed by my wife, Yasmin Vereen, and lightly edited by me.

I’ve Simplified My Case to Mother Earth

I've simplified my case to mother earth
I've buried all those treasures,
they are hidden in the dearth and now inside the muck,
have we unearthed truth?

Is it on the lips of the girls,
in the forbidden kissing booths?
or with the soldiers in their shiny jack boots?

Breathe in these three things: vitality,
the orange hue of the new days
sunset, and tranquility.

Exhale bitterness, cobwebs of the mind, hatred.

I am told these things will consume you, they have consumed me too,

I've taken on so many, and beaten back so few
How can one continue on so many blows?
It just keeps on going, why? Nobody knows.
Around midnight, there comes a chilly breeze,
the wind picks up and begins to howl, blow, creak and bay,
I've stripped myself naked, and entered into the fray,
I've restrained partially, my younger wilder days,
wilder visions, wilder dreams, rough and rowdy ways,

I've gotten just a bit older, and the world a bit colder,
echoes beat back from the black, rest them on your shoulder,
they mean nothing now, the meaning of words is over.
Call it instinct, intuition, call it a hunch,
they will break backs for you,
to see it is to lose your lunch,
what I am trying to say is there is no use for the poet anymore,
the fire died out of that craft
I'd take those lousy poets and cut them all in half,
I'd throw the art students in one big bin,
I'd set it aflame (and perhaps jump in)
bitterness, cobwebs of the mind, hatred, too

These things have crept in, and what is more is that they are
way past their due.

And I cannot explain it, it's a finicky type of thing,
But I know the truth when I hear it, like a bird knows to sing

…

From Like A Bird Knows To Sing
Poems from Minas Gerais by Judson Stacy Vereen

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