John Cage Engaged and Uncaged
Aug 17th, 2009 | By John Burroughs | Category: Poetry | 1152 viewsSunken funkin’ telepumpkin
Tell a country bumpkin who I am
And then let him tell you.
Both will tell it true
Though their perspectives seem contradictory
I’m born of hickory and rectory
Blind Bartimaeus and insightful inspectory
True tale and muddled myth
On an identical trajectory.
John Cage or someone like him
(is anyone like anyone
more than anyone is unlike?)
Said disharmony does not exist
And the peaceniks are pissed.
Corn isn’t hominy
But hominy is corn
And care isn’t clothing
Though care can be worn
And all can be born
And all can be torn
And loved and forlorn
And warned and scorned
And according to some bother or brother or other
Reborn.
Sunken funkin’ telepumpkin
Born of a couch potato
And a pureed tomato
An almost dead and buried berater
Blind hate hater
Lover
Elater
Thin ice skater
War abhorrer
Saint and horror
Mental (and governmental)
Master baiter
And sooner or later
Repeat reincarnator.
I am a living death
An awakened dream
Ash unconsumed
And a silent scream
Reconcilable so-called contradiction
And factual fiction
John Cage
Uncaged
Inadequately aged and yet
Timeless
A sublime mess
Subconsciously clothed and consciously undressed
Said worse and better are no less than best
Corn is hominy
And there is no disharmony
Only harmonies to which our ears
(my dears and our fears)
Are unaccustomed.
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About John Burroughs: John Burroughs, aka Jesus Crisis, is a Buddho-Taoist pacifist, poet, playwright, composer, and seeker in Elyria, Ohio. His works have appeared in dozens of print and online publications, ten of his musical stageplays were commissioned by the State of Ohio to be performed by prisoners as community service, and his poetry chapbooks include Bloggerel, Identity Crises and 6/9. Founder of the Crisis Chronicles Press and Online Library, John co-hosts the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza at 7 p.m. every 3rd Tuesday at the Bela Dubby Art Gallery and Beer Cafe in Lakewood, Ohio - just west of Cleveland - and is currently writing a book about his 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Find him at www.crisischronicles.com. |
©2009 John Burroughs All Rights Reserved
John, I really enjoyed hearing you share this at Mint Jam! I am pleased that it is here so I can read it and absorb it more completely!
Susan