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The fire sermon.

Beyond the bowed mountain
land that had seethed through its teeth
cracked a thunderous crack
so bold, so low, so ominous
that it sent shivers through the air
and trapped
trundling angels in their tracks.

It brought the scurrying miracle of men
in a nocturnal flurry to the inceptive scene
where lightning greeted the ground
conducted with a petrifying sound
the spark that lit the sibylline tinder world.

A monstrous torch: it ran
an unfettered riot
through the scrub and scorched
all the world in view
a blistering, buckling wave
of sparks flew
sun red tsunami swam through thicket smog
the unmistakable scent of log and fern
letting go the earth to burst into sky
devouring air, burning fearful eye.

And burn it did,
We saw it you and I-
all you had known
and beneath all this
leavening of eternal fire
all humanity could do
was look on the world and glowing sky
and gather together all the good
they could keep and renew,
embrace this world denuded,
or turn away
to fight the inferno
another day.

Style / type: 
Free verse
Review Request (Intensity): 
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Editing stage: 

Comments

excellent
your script and nuance
is becoming more cohesive
the framework stronger
shuttle from the dream
vision to the reality of
abstract streamlined
hull is an art born through
experience.

great work Chris!

As mentioned to Viv below, I'm attempting - time will tell how well, to observer natural processes more and find the muscular, tangible sense language built in there, I'm trying to write more instinctively, while maintaining a disciplined crafty tongue.. maybe, maybe it's just taking a line for consciously observed walk..

Thanks.

Chris.

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

Powerful presentation of a devastating scenario. The end message I get is a question of "being indifferent" or "acquirement of immunity" in the given scenario.
Am I correct to see in this way?

xxxxx

It's a case of cut your losses, or as someone said, cut your beauties and make the best of what's been given to you by the force of fire - or turn away and regroup your senses and fight the irresistible force, growing larger every day. It's a tough choice, which used to be a once in a generation thing, but is clearly becoming a regular fixture, every summer - brings a fire season of increasing ferocity. It fascinates me how it transforms people from apathy to collective action, how it's presented and portrayed on the media, and how it's processed afterwards. I guess I was trying to portray the indifferent nature of how these elemental forces are trying to tell us something - something that can't be learnt any other way, hence "fire sermon" which also is a reference to the senses and fire sermon in the Buddhist tradition (I'm not a Buddhist BTW.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers.

Chris.

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

read your comments to viv and
your explanation of your poem
I used too read to the grade five
or six class....thirteen fourteen
or twelve..young anyway...
class found me too weird and
different to befriend and I got
actually shunned....but reading
standing at the front of the class
orating from a book...over and
over till I said No..teacher took
a bird and I never read again..
others took over...teacher took
it as a power thing....if He thought
he was in charge..that talent like
reading could be altered...He
never asked why I said no that
day....but I learned about the power
of the voice...and conviction

I per nature am slow in reading
a tension thing
not the fast hustler flashiness
of others...there were better writers
boys and girls...but they were shy
awkward..they didnt have that natural
polish although they might be great
writers published...
not me...
I found the great communicators
were fantastic
between movie watching from television
and reading...and a lot from the radio
and records...Morrisons crazy poetry
before the songs were interesting
Nico was creative...
some of the slower dirges got me
Today I like Nico Case
and Lykke Li

sermons I dont remember that much
but the radio ones I did
static and the ghost of wave transmission
overlap..static crackle from all the storms
coming in from the lake...south of here
this city gets soft weather in comparison
down where I lived..

but we get cycles here....

I didnt even see the story in the poetry
when I read it.....so I therefore think
pretty abstract...
but the poem itself lit my imagination
there is a large time warp in my head
about things going on...

Now I get it..
a re read with the full knowledge
of what it is adds much much more
excellent!

thank U!

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