*****

Recorded Reading (3:20): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jisjb7qxyj07151qwto4j/I-Read….mp3?rlkey=rs52wg6110lloww4ll5die2es&st=xatll45s&dl=0

*****

I Read…

I have sailed the seven seas
Of all of human histories

Had adventures all untold
Dined from dishes of pure gold
Or exquisite porphyry
In damp castles anciently

Fortified against a dreadful
Overwhelming enemy
Numbering perhaps all of
Two hundred men or three

And carrying no weapons
But their axes and their swords
I’ve been some of the women
Devastated in such wars

I’ve lingered with the shepherds
In the classic way
With no more than to meditate
And watch throughout each day

Amid a nature so pervasive
Everywhere around
It seemed mankind could make no more
Than the smallest sound

I’ve suffered with the laborers
Who killed classical meat
In stink and filth and ordure
Smelling nothing sweet

At work, or in their homes
Situated quite nearby
Beneath the fumes which blocked the sun
From their forever sky

In centuries not so far past
And, ay, in our own land ~
To this day, what workers endure
The privileged don’t understand

I’ve been the student in Japan
Suffered from a broken pate ~
She had the gates closed upon her
For being two short seconds late

And hung out, too, in Africa
Where they peacefully sleep
Until inner command reminds them
An appointment there’s to keep

And, coming to the meeting place
Find themselves not late
Nor early ~ there’s th’expected one
Just coming through the gate…

I’ve been where bounden duty
Prioritizes over beauty
And also been gladly where
Beauty features in every prayer

I’ve been where ones unblackened teeth
Indicate plebian soul
And here and now, where only pristine
Whiteness makes its bearer whole

In all things I observe a range
Human behaviors of
Which arbitrarily here now
We decide to hate or love

When just a little larger
Perspective would reveal
Nothing about them about which
Should objection feel

A harmonious tolerance
Of humankind’s diversity
Has been vouchsafed to the
Inquiring mind and heart of me

How have I accomplished
These travels I’ve been on?
How have I this tolerance
And this wisdom won?

I put down the video
And opened up a book
Taking into history
A more personal look

Than any thirty minutes
Interrupted by the ads
Designed to keep us oriented
In the current fads

Ever could provide, no matter
How many such we may see
Presenting currently edited
Scenes of past “reality”

I went to the ‘horse’s mouth’
I went to the source
Charting midst the winds of time
My own reflective course

By sounding voices live and dead ~
I read. I read. I read.

*****

This poet/editor is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code 72D-31S. It will take about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

International donors please contact the poet for special instructions.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts