Sunday, January 15, 2017

Kit Kelen - for godsbother #9 - I am a terrible tyrant and bully


377
I am a terrible tyrant and bully

I am thinking out loud
(God knows why)
I am talking to myself again
I am
… that's the main thing to remember
comes in all languages

how long is it since supper now?

do what I say, not what I do
never try this at home

deliver however many warnings you like

there's flood
there's famine
there's fire

you think you can build a tower
cosy up?

I never listen to my own advice
there's only one voice I can hear

I have a waiting room
it's hard to read with the coughing in there

alright, you look back
be a pillar of salt
pillar of pepper
for all I care

you can choose what you like to believe
I love a fatal flaw

I am a terrible bully
make breezes
and petals for roses to show
such sweet perfume
as loves must lure

I like to be a little blinding
and I visit with plagues and with pox

see my clouds
they're like no others
stars to show
how far
I've come

I like a little something
burnt at the stake
like my wrath
medium rare
that's just to let you know
I'm for real
make that gospel

why do I bother?
I could let it all go
wouldn't the deists love that?
they're all iced

yes I am a vengeful fucker
you bet

you think that I'm mad
to write it all down
collecting the curses
to keep in this little box

yes, you in the back
I am talking to you
the one with your family on fire
quit that shrieking

I have beatific moments too
and rapture from rubbing the world
the right way

I'm the truth to set you free

out of my way you mortal
as destined
let's see how you go with that
I'm the long shadow
day and night

get on with your rejoicing
it's tedious but needed
think of me as your CEO

some days I am institutional

big papa Zeus rapes all in his path

you take a dim view?
that's the problem with your kind

I'm who does the judging
here
and there
and everywhere

have a go at conscientious objecting

try to imagine the dry bones rising
on the last of days
yes, you could think of that as a punch line
but it isn't the best of my jokes

tickets on me?
my silence is bluster

there isn't a pigeon hole that I'll fit

I am a terrible tyrant
I roar
o insolence to question

and when I damn you
I know where to
it's on for young and old
there is no coming back

but I invented the dance
take my steps
like breeze to leaf bear up
there is no detail
below my means
you think of dragonflies
I make each atom-world
in their eyes

when I blow
and your world goes out
blink and it's the same

am I looking?
Peekaboo!
do I read your mind
I am what you're thinking now

you want to get out of the storm?
well I'm it

I am a dreadful slave driver
quit stalling – get your back into

doubts! will only draw you closer

why is it they all cling to my raft
when blindness would be better?

don't they know that I'm the shark too
and I'm the knife kept out sight

what is the punishment they crave?
No, I have thought a way through that
and I have something better

let me be your briney deep
I am the wings of love
and I am all of the heavens above

I came up in the first lift
you can only imagine the seventh
I go for forever

have you heard the choir up there?
then who do you think is conducting?

who is it dares to do my voice?
I smite
you know I'm bearded for it
and testicles to boot

all that stuff at the back of your head
when you can't get to sleep
yours truly

I sign
I'm the buck stops
yes it's all about me

would you like the calling card?
think twice before you say

I am a terrible tyrant
I roar

let's go out to the desert together
I'll show you mine
and of course it's symbolic
I love an exegete
a holy war when the hunger comes

if somebody's wrong
then it's not me

I am a dreadful bastard you know
just don't ask 'how's your father?'

but I did make the garden

I made you stand upright
call names

I'm a long way back
I'm the one who...
it's easy to point a finger

better to make your hands a prayer
better because I say

I'm dreaming now

you can save yourself
it's never too late
fat lady's still mum

don't come to me
with your casket of foreskin
I've got some commandments for you

Christ!
can't you lug a few simple tablets
do I have to say everything twice?

all obey my will
it's nicer

I'm God all day long
I'm a terrible bully
I'm best when I'm vengeful and cruel

you will do what I say

how it delights to make music for me

I lie on this couch
sing from the beginning

some of me would like to be women
and some would well, doctor, you know

I take it the simple nod will suffice

*

there are so many
last out please get the lights
could you?

12 comments:

  1. I think this is a rough early draft of what should be a core poem in the collection...

    although godsbother is not specifically or centrally about monotheism, I think monotheism is important in the whole scheme of the book because of where I'm from culturally ...but I'm interested in other monotheisms too - like Aten ... and I'm interested in the analogy between Zeus and co and the whole saint set-up in Christianity ...

    all that said, anthropomorphism is the more interesting general phenomenon here

    so - I'm not sure if this gets longer or shorter or split or what ... this is just the first day of this particular idea

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  2. Why are you posting the same poems in this blog and the 366 one?

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    Replies
    1. I promised to keep writing daily with the 366 people who were yet to finish ... and a lot of them seem to want to either finish, or go on anyway...
      so if I'm producing work that's towards a 52 project and new and I haven't produced two poem drafts that day, it seems reasonable to post it to both...
      or am I just being lazy?

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  3. Replies
    1. Project 52 Project 52 is a weekly blog activity in 2017. It derives from 2016's Project 366 (aka Project365+1). Its purpose is to provide an on-line community of practice for poets and artists who wish – over the year – to develop materials for publication, exhibition or performance.

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    2. as has been outlined ad nauseum from my p o v, Robbie, there is a multitude of differences between 366 and 52

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  4. If I were in your shoes, I would try to split and distribute or scatter bits of this biting irony accross this Godfathers section… and see how it sounds like … This would allow you to keep it longer if you wanted and to continue to explore and exploit this vein and tone. …

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    Replies
    1. hmmm
      okay

      thinking about that
      ... I guess it depends how much accumulates along these lines over time

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  5. Clearly this has many of the themes in the godsbother section. I tend to agree with Beatrice - I’d split into maybe 3 - it’s a powerful piece but if you were to scatter it throughout the section, it would form a kind of (Arachne's) thread through the labyrinth reminding us of this omniscient voice of the hungry power-mad god. Personally I’d keep the god’s/religions distinct, but just because it makes the reading (and the anthropomorphism) a bit easier.

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  6. thanks guys

    it does seem to have some different movements or moods, so this may be one for redistribution at some later point in the drafting ...

    I do kind of like mixing up the religions though -- esp where they are culturally mixed as a reality --- e.g. so much paganism in Christianity

    I'm trying to get to the awkwardnesses entailed in purported be belief systems, as well as the contradictions entailed in religious thought more generally

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  7. I like the thread metaphor for this kind of collection too... I think it has to have that

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