CHASTISE ME GOD!
Anoint my head with a healing oil,
uncover your mythological hand and rampage
down the gluttony of the streets.
Brandish a sword with Manjursi,
grow silent with the Buddha beside the shoreline
of suffering. Lick the wings off angels,
for your replica has lost all meaning
in today’s scientific labyrinth
of ultimate denial.
Oh curse my untalented pen, scorch my fingers
with white light and force me to recognize
a divine love that needs no apology.
OH I AM SICK, I AM TIRED!
I grow weary of being unable to glimpse
the magnificent splendour.
I feel an unbelievable thirst inside my skull,
my heart beats with dry valves
and my veins flow with terrified plasma.
Oh cataclysmic remembrance
of a more positive message, Oh misleading
covenant scribbled upon tablets
covered in dust . . .
its 2008 and the falsehood of the human tongue
no longer holds the same magic.
We need something fresh and virginal,
we need someone to come forth
and bless the oracles of agony.
We are without hope,
we are naked in a frozen pit of snakes.
In blackness and dwelling in a loveless bed,
we ramble through a foul landscape
of pus and metaphoric pain,
vomiting up half truths before an altar
of automatic death
without the possibility of reaching
a celestial sense of peacefulness.
Ah interior illumination, ah quiet understanding . . .
it is lost inside the antiquated remnants
of my ruin. I once recognized
the language of the dawn frog,
could translate the miracle of bird song
with a child’s ear,
but now I grow aged and without cheer.
I watch my own carnivorous species hurl despair
into the open mouths of orphans,
watch the girth of financial kings and queens
grow wider by the day,
watch the skeletal forms roam aimless
through this purgatory of soulless rust
and devirginized prayers.
SO CHASTISE ME GOD!
Smack me across my blistered face
with a halo of benevolence
because I’m afraid
that the mythology created
around your name
is growing less useful
and dimmer
by the day.
A contest entry
- Dark Lullabys by Redrusty66.
390 points, ended March 15, 2008, 16 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 10 of 10
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This is the best I have read in a long time. Your words etch into the being of humans, but only for those that will have sight to truly understand this. While you have skillfully sketched the human perdicament, there is also an acknowledgement that this cannot be fully comprehended in the human mind. My thoughts went back to the times of Noah and perhaps here is something alike those days in this poem. Scarry, the thought that I hear your words echoed in the 'every day talk' of young people. My mind is so full of the images that you have created. The sad thing is that so many reading this will stand in awe, but continue their lives. I pray that in and trhough Christ that we shall once again bow before God the creater, uttering: Chastise me God! Bless you. Frans
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This was one of the most hardcore poems I've ever read. This is some serious emotion and imagery you have here; criticizing modern society and how it's turned away from religion and lost its morals. I think a lot of people have reflected on the same idea, without really touching it as thoroughly as you have. Great read.
Have you ever read Aesthete? Something about your style reminds me of him.
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Superb
An incredible write. -
Very powerful and provocative. It is easy to identify with the words, and to discover the unslaked thirst within. Your words are well-used, issuing with the force of an impassioned orator behind them. I found /naked in a frozen pit of snakes/ and /altar of automatic death/ to be particularly strong.
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My goodness, this is so good....
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woah.... I needed to stop and breathe in the middle of that... that was so powerful, your words hitting deep down to the core. I feel so unworthy now, that I haven't done all I can to serve my God. This was so very powerful, and the message was so clear.
Blessings,
~Michaela~
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Oh Marc...you write so beautifully...I think so many would gladly stand in the queue with you for that smack across our blistered faces, and dried up hearts, and hold out those dusty old tablets asking...is this all?...though my own heart tells me ...where the Divine lives is never truly dead...and He lives in you, my friend...alive and well in you. Peace, Rhonda
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"I watch my own carnivorous species hurl despair
into the open mouths of orphans,"
I had to stop there and take a breath. Had the urge to scream silently. Whew!
My goodness Marc! I am left wallowing in my own murk, feeling like I have done less than my fair share in serving the Almighty Father.
Your poem spills over, flood the heart, mind and soul. This is a most humbling work of mastery. I am really speechless. Yes! POWERFUL! You make me want to purge, repent in sack cloth and ashes...
Thank YOU ♥
Much Love Always ♥
Renee
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Just awesome, what unique perspective and thought invoking prose. It was a wealth of imgery and gave me many paths down which to ponder.
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Wow. Powerful. We have created a God in our image and as such we have lost touch with the divinity within and without.
Wonderfully done, Marc!
Bravo!
Marianne
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