“. . . lest when thou hast eaten and art full . . . then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt . . .who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought” —Deuteronomy 8:10-15
It happened by degrees, so slow
As seasons change to years,
We didn’t feel the shift below,
The sliding of the gears.
The deprivation once we knew,
The sorrow and the strain,
When nothing in our field of view
Could mitigate the pain,
Now gone and, in its stead, a trust
For blessing, favor, grace.
Awakening, we rose from dust
To Eden’s better place.
How cautiously we tried to walk,
How tentative our tread,
As those recovering, with shock,
From rising from the dead.
But, step by step, our strength returned,
And with it grew our hope.
The locust years behind us, burned,
The future in our scope.
Success now stamped our working days
And pleasure marked our path.
Our journey under Heaven’s rays,
No longer under wrath.
So time sped by, without much thought
Of skies that once were gray.
‘Til we forgot, . . . yes, we forgot . . .
The God of yesterday.
Amy Foreman hails from the southern Arizona desert, where she homesteads with her husband and seven children. She has enjoyed teaching both English and Music at the college level, but is now focused on home-schooling her children, gardening, farming, and writing. Her blog is theoccasionalcaesura.wordpress.com
Dear Amy,
You’ve handled yourself remarkably well, through what can only be described as a very unfortunate situation.
I believe that you see it for what it is.
I’ll be bringing it in for a landing and hitting the delete button – not enough oxygen up here for me.
Joe
Thank you, Joe. I suppose, in the interest of fairness, I also should yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Poland. He represents himself far better than you or I ever could. 😉
What I like about you is that you have given birth to 7 children, are a fine mother and wife. However, it looks like you’re going to win the poetasteress of the year award at the Pennsylvania Review in a fair and democratic election: http://pennreview.com/2018/07/who-is-the-greatest-poetasteress-of-all-time/
Thank you, Leo, for the nomination, though my delight in this historic landslide victory is slightly tempered by the knowledge that there were only two candidates. A third party would have been nice. 😉
Nevertheless, tou·ché. A hit, . . . acknowledged. May it bring you much pleasure.
Amy,
Aren’t there only two candidates in most elections? I wish you no harm; the poll will disappear in 2 minutes.
No harm done, Leo . . . but don’t be surprised if I return to haunt you: “I’ll get you, my pretty . . . and your little dog, too!”
My dear Joseph Salemi you are a great poet, as I believe my review of your work has made abundantly clear. Nothing detracts from that achievement, and neither will I change my mind about my estimate of your great poetry, whatever else I may disagree with you about. But Amy Foreman is a fine poet too, and she has also an even finer point about civility. I am very Right wing myself, but I hold it the essence of courtesy to respect others, especially on this forum. For we here – all of us, according to our degrees of power and ability – are working against the forces of post-modernism and free verse and determinism – and not against each other by needless abuse. You will recall that the adjective most used to describe Shakespeare – the greatest poet in the English language – by his contemporaries was ‘gentle’. Gentle Shakespeare – imagine that! I know you know this, so what else should I say?
James, I have never said a single word in criticism of Ms. Foreman’s poetry. Her poem is not the real subject of this argument. In fact, I wish this entire debate could be abstracted from the issue of Ms. Foreman’s poem.
Granted, this site is dedicated to a very small niche-market of appreciators of formal verse. We don’t count for much in the larger world of politics and class struggle. I would love to see us totally dedicated to technical commentary and criticism of the individual poems posted here, without any political backbiting. I truly would.
But the larger war swirling around us makes that well-nigh impossible. Ms. Forman asks about our “enemies.” They are everywhere, and they do not tolerate any venues or public arenas where they do not dominate discourse with their left-liberal orthodoxy. The real trouble here at SCP starts not so much with Count Yankevich (who, I admit, can be unnecessarily tough and abrasive at times) but with posters who show up to push a kind of slow-motion censorship on any poem or critique that doesn’t fit a politically correct agenda.
What happens when guys like that show up? If we are polite and civil and charitable with them, they immediately push even harder and farther, using our civility as a wedge to insinuate their political agenda onto this site. And then, slowly but surely, we are caught in a web of deference, negotiation, give-and-take, and piecemeal surrender. Pretty soon everybody is watching his Ps and Qs. Look at the result in Great Britain, where people are now scared witless to say ANYTHING that might get them in trouble with the traitor class that runs that unfortunate nation.
I too might wish that Leo wouldn’t be so feisty and provocative at times. But with somebody like him on our side, we don’t have to worry about the creeping political correctness that has gradually swallowed up all other poetry sites like the gelatinous monster in the movie The Blob. Besides, let’s train ourselves to take some punches!
Ms. Foreman, I have no real argument with you, other than in matters of degree and emphasis. I too would like to live in a society of old-world civility, with everyone seated around the table for an English high tea. No sarcasm there, Ms. Foreman — I really long for it. But the left won’t let that happen. And the left today is everywhere. They are even trying to infiltrate this tiny niche-market of formalist verse.
I value politeness and courtesy as much as you do, Mr. Sale!
That was said with both eloquence and civility, Mr. Salemi! 😉
I agree with you that we must be vigilant against the encroachment of the sort of political correctness that stifles Truth in the face of Islamofascism or left-wing ideology. Absolutely. I am not aware that such “slow-motion” p.c. has ever tried to “sneak across” the borders of the SCP, but it may have happened on posts I have not read.
I also agree that lively discourse and criticism are key components of the SCP, ones that can help each of us to write better poetry. Even Leo’s consistent complaints about my verse as “thumping,” “tin-eared,” “amateurish doggerel” of the worst kind do not offend me, and, in fact, intrigue me.
However, when I and others are specifically and personally attacked, we no longer have a poetry site talking about poetry. We have the reactionary equivalent of a left-wing university demonstration, complete with defamatory slurs and name-calling. It’s unacceptable.
Poets on this site have been called “raisin-b*lled” “bull-sh*itters,” “heretics” steeped in the “primordial evil” of their own “sullied souls.” One poet’s livelihood was THREATENED! That is unacceptable. Dismissing behavior like this as “feisty and provocative” shows shortsightedness, a shortsightedness not unlike that of those supporters of the “religion of peace,” who refuse to be concerned when the “peaceful” mob shouts, “British soldiers, go to h*ll.”
That’s my view on it, anyway. I hope I did not cross the bounds of civility in saying it! Blessings to you, Mr. Salemi, and to Mr. Sale and Mr. Yankevich as well.
Thank you Joseph: that’s great and I am really pleased to hear what you say. Let’s have tea round the high table – with Amy too if she can be there! I am coming to New York next year, so maybe, who knows … it might happen. As for Political Correctness, of course, you are right. It is a disease which is killing my country; we are currently like Frodo on the edge of doom, swaying this way and that, with the ring – the EU – threatening to take us all down. It did my heart good to see Jean-Claude Junker sweating like a nervous hog before President Trump and reneging on the very EU ‘we don’t negotiate under duress’ commitment and Trump getting him to deal! If only our Prime Minister took a stand. Juncker, by the way, is famous for this great quote of infamy: “When it becomes serious, you have to lie”. And then they smugly virtue-signal to Trump. What hypocrisies – ah! Perhaps time for more of your great poetry satirising these creeps. Thanks again for replying.
This line explained it all perfectly, James: ” For we here – all of us, according to our degrees of power and ability – are working against the forces of post-modernism and free verse and determinism – and not against each other by needless abuse. ” Well put. 🙂
Not only does Ms. Foreman’s poetry display remarkable qualities, for example, the remarkable tone of her lament, “‘Til We Forgot”; so too does her reasoned prose.
The SCP is superior to other Internet sites, other literary reviews, and other poetic journals, because:
1. it allows for the free exchange of ideas about poetry, monitored, of course, by its editor Mr. Mantyk, who administers its comments under a very liberal banner of tolerance and compassion;
2. in addition to poetry and verse, it exhibits reviews, translations, and interviews;
3. its participants range from novice to mature, from new voices to ancient, and from various theoretical stands;
4. it publishes poets and poetry from around the World;
5. it carries the banner of classical poetry, even in its title;
6. its shows great variety in styles and forms, embracing riddles and anecdotes, accepting syllabic as well as metrical structures;
7. it utilizes the visual and the aural arts throughout;
8. its concerns range from aesthetics to politics, from cultural to ethical;
9. its topics include, among so many issues, human rights and deconstructing totalitarianisms;
10. and it is dynamic, occasionally printing work on news of note.
As the great Latin literary critic Quintilian (c. 35 – c. 100) wrote “Laudem virtutis necessitati damus.”
Certainly Ms. Foreman’s poem ought to appear in the 2058 Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, like most other great works of poetry. And yet it won’t: the world forgets us and moves on.
I don’t assume a watchmaker
Nor hold big bangs as cause
My course though bumpy is much straighter
Each time I believe I pause
To live in doubt and wonderment
Especially for those who know
Explaining faith is mere escape
When they’ve no place else to go
No devil whispers in my ear
I think things good and bad
And if it turns I disappear
A few may well be sad
“He loves us we are dear to him”
They cried with upward glance
Then the cows foot it came crashing down
On the hopeful heap of ants.
Mr. Gray, this poem is very clever. I have often thought of atoms as being tiny solar systems, and our solar system as being an atom inside some being’s big toe. It is just a matter of time before he stubs his toe and we all perish.
Perfect.
That was supposed to look like, “Perfect!” 😉