WordSalad: The Poetry of Luke Prater

We cannot live an afterlife in lieu;
the next is predicated on the last,
dependent on the lessons: many, few.

Not satisfied rewriting teachings, you
absolve him of his race, Semitic cast.
Yes, Yeshua ben Yosef was a Jew.

Depict him as Caucasian, and to woo
those acts he railed against (wage war? Aghast).
Step out of stone, of darker ageing hue.

No ‘Jew’ as the Messiah, yet you view
their lineage as sacred scriptured past.
Yes, Yeshua ben Josef was a Jew.

His sexuality’s been taken, too,
and Maryam declassed, a whore (out)cast.*
Such carnal inadmission tends to skew.

Staunch Theocratic hegemony’s due
its Karmic fate: no Heaven’s Gate, at last.
We cannot live an afterlife in lieu -

it rests upon the lessons: many, few.

 
 
✩

*Pope Gregory the Great‘s homily on Luke’s gospel dated 14 September 591 first suggested that Mary Magdalene (Maryam/Miriam) was a prostitute: “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? … It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.”(homily XXXIII).

(Source: Wikipedia). Sources generally: several over many years (none including Dan Brown), and just the tip of a rather large iceberg. It was pretty difficult packing even this much into nineteen lines. I feel a free verse rewrite coming on.

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He’s credo-desecrated; she
is censorship-truncated. They

are mutually masturbat-
ed, grappled, self-inflated. They,

defamatory overweight-
ed, dappled, self-elated. They

want time with God (not yours) today.

I’m cold, refuse disclosure; we
are told the ruse has censure. They,

of confrontational compo-
sure; dark-meat self-exposure. They

are pushingploughing fast foreclo-
sure; white-meat weapons kosher. They

need time with God (not yours) today.

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Destroying buoyant aid
surging the planet’s largest lockup

(Alcatraz never dreamt
such island alienation).



State-Sponsored Terrorism
feigns law, pretends sense, claims pretence.


Chocolate without milk: darkest, bitter.



Another sanctioned skip towards Genocide -
does wearing a badge make
that surging chest Holier with pride?

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One London Underground train after quadruple suicide bombings on 7/7 2005

blackberry-wielding whitecollar stressmesses
yanks clutching maps and the a-z bible

clickety-clack on the track, the train

aussies n kiwis n saffas on backpacks
afrocar’bbeans n kids in their colours

clickety-clack on the track, the train

eastend boys and those westend girls
eighties earworm, their ipods repeating

clickety-clack on the track, the train

muslims n hindus n jews from the green
continent euros n christian africans

click-

tuberide commutercide infideliquidate

thousand blackberries
nine-nine-nine
seven/seven
four martyrs
one god

(not yours)

mind the gap

☆

999 is the UK emergency number. “Mind the gap” is what the automated voice barks through the PA system when boarding/disembarking London Underground (Tube) trains.

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Armless (unrhymed)

In the heat the people stand like statues,
children scuffle up against the long wall.
Hotel California, but no entrance -
visa, passport, transport, no-show shoeless.

Children scuffle up against the long wall;
strangle and garottes the hopeless hoping.
Visa, passport, transport, no-show shoeless -
UN bugger-alling, vetoed armless,

strangles and garottes the hopeless hoping.
Strip ‘em, strap ‘em, limb-from-limb ‘em, all, all;
UN bugger-alling, vetoed armless,
on an island in a sea of loathing.

Strip ‘em, strap ‘em, limb-from-limb ‘em, all, all.
Soldier killed by sniper and it’s “Terror!”,
on an island, in a sea of loathing.
Tank in ‘error’ slaughters six civilians.

Soldier killed by sniper and it’s “Terror!”,
media control our ears and eyes, screened.
Tank in ‘error’ slaughters six civilians;
forces on offensive, so defensive.

Media control our ears and eyes, screened.
Hotel California, but not entrance.
Forces on offensive, so defensive;
in the heat the people sit like statues.

Armless (rhymed)

In the heat they stand like humbled gentry,
children scuffle up against the long wall.
Hotel California, yet no entry;
strip ‘em, strap ‘em, limb-from-limb ‘em, all, all.

Children scuffle up against the long wall.
UN bugger-alling, vetoed armless -
strip ‘em, strap ‘em, limb-from-limb ‘em, all, all.
Visa, passport, transport, no-show shoeless -

UN bugger-alling, vetoed armless,
strangles and garottes the hopeless hoping.
Visa, passport, transport, no-show shoeless,
on an island in a sea of loathing,

strangles and garottes the hopeless hoping.
Soldier killed by sniper and it’s “Terror!”,
on an island in a sea of loathing.
Tank cuts down civilians, six, in ‘Error’,

soldier killed by sniper and it’s “Terror!”
Media control our eyes and ears, sieved;
tank cuts down civilians, six, in ‘Error’.
Forces on offensive, so defensive,

media control our eyes and ears, sieved.
Hotel California, yet no entry;
forces on offensive, so defensive.

In the heat they sit like ruined gentry.

☆

Pantoum: Usually blank (unrhymed), and no meter dictated, but quite often these elements are added to this unusual, repetition-rich old form from Malaysia, originally song and adapted as poetry by the French Colonialists (one of the better things to arise from Imperialism). I’ve used trochaic pentameter in both versions.

Repetition-scheme is simply that the second and fourth line of every stanza becomes the first and third of the next. In the final stanza, the same applies, plus the second and fourth lines are repetitions of lines one and three of the very first stanza. So every line is repeated once. Variations in repetition are acceptable (quite nice actually, in my opinion).

Which is more effective, the rhymed or unrhymed version?

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two words
(etheree)

the
tenth of
december
is human rights
day. one more token
gesture, lick and stick a
label on one day in three
hundred and sixty-five, to give
the west: civilised, free, sweet moment
to dampen a cloying conscience. two words:

Guantanamo Bay.

two words (free verse)

the tenth of december is human rights day.
another token gesture, lick and stick a label
on one day in three hundred and sixty-five

to give the west – civilised, free – sweet moment
to stifle a cloying conscience. two words:

Guantanamo Bay.

Two Words (Shadorma)

Friday tenth
December: Human
Rights Day. Yet
another
gesture of label-licking
and label-sticking

to let the
civilised West, forced
ethical
compass of
the Free World, to stifle a
strained conscience. Two words:

Guantanamo Bay.

Nearly eight hundred Arab Muslims were incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after President Bush declared his “War on Terror” in the wake of the horrific events that made the date 9/11 one never to be forgotten. Many of these men were tortured at prisons in Pakistan and Afghanistan (among other places), before being brought to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. Nearly nine years have passed, and there are still well over 100 men imprisoned there. Almost none have been charged with any criminal offence, and likewise been given the right to demonstrate that their imprisonment is illegal under United States and International laws. They simply exist, without charge or trial, not knowing when, or if, they will ever know freedom, suffering serious Human Rights abuses. The hundreds that are now gone, charged, or emancipated (and one or two having committed suicide in hopelessness), endured several years of the same treatment. Obama, isn’t it time to end this despicable affront to Human Rights and almost a total contravention of the Geneva Convention, as you promised you would (not to mention US and International Law)? If they are terrorists, try and charge them legally. Those (several) that aren’t, are living proof of complete disgrace to our claim to being the ‘Free Word’ and a civilised culture. I wrote this on UN Human Rights Day (December 10th). You could be forgiven for not having noticed that such a day even exists. As of February 2011, 172 detainees remain at Guantanamo.

On the forms here: I wrote this as an Etheree first – created about twenty years ago by an Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong, consisting of ten lines of unmetered and unrhymed verse, the first line having one syllable, each succeeding line adding a syllable, with the total syllable count being fifty-five. A concise form, meant to focus on one idea or subject (information sourced here). I tried it in Shadorma stanzas too - old Spanish form also strict in syllable-count. Five lines as follows: 3-5-3-3-7-5 for a total of twenty-six syllables.

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