Child of Flame 0 Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 Christ Climbed Down by Lawrence Ferlinghetti CHRIST climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no rootless Christmas trees hung with candycanes and breakable stars Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no gilded Christmas trees and no tinsel Christmas trees and no tinfoil Christmas trees and no pink plastic Christmas trees and no gold Christmas trees and no black Christmas trees and no powderblue Christmas trees hung with electric candles and encircled by tin electric trains and clever cornball relatives Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where no intrepid Bible salesmen covered the territory in two-tone cadillacs and where no Sears Roebuck creches complete with plastic babe in manger arrived by parcel post the babe by special delivery and where no televised Wise Men praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where no fat handshaking stranger in a red flannel suit and a fake white beard went around passing himself off as some sort of North Pole saint crossing the desert to Bethlehem Pennsylvania in a Volkswagon sled drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer with German names and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts from Saks Fifth Avenue for everybody's imagined Christ child Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where no Bing Crosby carollers groaned of a tight Christmas and where no Radio City angels iceskated wingless thru a winter wonderland into a jinglebell heaven daily at 8:30 with Midnight Mass matinees Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and softly stole away into some anonymous Mary's womb again where in the darkest night of everybody's anonymous soul He awaits again an unimaginable and impossibly Immaculate Reconception the very craziest of Second Comings Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darth Drabek 0 Posted December 26, 2005 Share Posted December 26, 2005 I read some Ferlinghetti back in a college lit class. Wasn't this particular one, but still, good stuff. There's a cool bookstore in San Francisco that I visited that all the beats used to frequent back in the day, I guess. Lot of Kerouac, lot of Ginsburg. It was definitely the sort of place in which I could spend all day reading in a corner. Quote baby, take off your beret everyone's a critic and most people are DJs Link to post Share on other sites
Bokishi 444 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 Woohoo a thread about Jesus! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Child of Flame 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Author Share Posted December 27, 2005 You misunderstand the meaning of the poem Bok, that or you haven't read some of Mr. Ferlinghetti's other works. Take your pick really. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bokishi 444 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 I didn't read the poem yet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Judge Hades 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 I found it rather humorous. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reveilled 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 It doesn't rhyme. Quote Hawk! Eggplant! AWAKEN! Link to post Share on other sites
Child of Flame 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Author Share Posted December 27, 2005 (edited) That's because it's beat poetry man. Spoken word. You dig it? Edited December 27, 2005 by Child of Flame Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darkside 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 *snaps fingers* I like it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Surreptishus 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 It doesn't rhyme. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thats not entirely true, it rhymes... in places. Anyway it has meter and that is enough. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darth Drabek 0 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 I found the Ferlinghetti poem I read (and enjoyed) back in the day. All the aspiring poets (and fan fiction-writers) among us can probably relate to it. It's called "Constantly Risking Absurdity" and it goes something like this... Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience the poet like an acrobat climbs on rhyme to a high wire of his own making and balancing on eyebeams above a sea of faces paces his way to the other side of the day performing entrachats and sleight-of-foot tricks and other high theatrics and all without mistaking any thing for what it may not be For he's the super realist who must perforce perceive taut truth before the taking of each stance or step in his supposed advance toward that still higher perch where Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap And he a little charleychaplin man who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence Quote baby, take off your beret everyone's a critic and most people are DJs Link to post Share on other sites
Gabrielle 1 Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 It's not dark enough. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reveilled 0 Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 (edited) It doesn't rhyme. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thats not entirely true, it rhymes... in places. Anyway it has meter and that is enough. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Bah! If rhyme was good enough for Poe, Burns, Chaucer and Shakespeare, it's good enough for any upstart modern poet! Lousy stinkin' youngters thinkin' they know so much about poetry. *mumble* *grumble* Well, at least it's not free verse, so I suppose that makes it sort of okay. *ghrumble* Edited December 28, 2005 by Reveilled Quote Hawk! Eggplant! AWAKEN! Link to post Share on other sites
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