Amergin in Orange County

Posted on February 23, 2004 in Poems The Orange

Note: This is based on The Song of Amergin, most expressly the version that I found in Poem a Day, Vol. 2, p. 56. There’s another version here.

Through a resurrection of Amergin and an imitation of his forms, I seek to revive the most primitive, most brutal aspects of the life I see around me in a place that has striven to erase certain essential facts: that we come from the earth, that we cannot escape being of the earth, and that our food consists entirely of souls.

I am a street: fronted by strip malls.

I am a flood: gushing from a canyon.

I am a wind: that dries the brush.

I am an SUV: hungry for rough roads.

I am a hawk: atop a telephone pole.

I am a fire: engulfing mansions.

I am a bike: cutting ruts in the trail.

I am an executive: who but I

     stares down at the world through walls of smoke glass?

I am a gun: that roars for blood.

I am a lawn: where none should grow.

I am a slough: entrapped by concrete.

I am a puma: sneaking up on my prey.

I am a parking lot: that smothers the earth.

I am a surfer: riding a breaker.

I am a worker: who but I

     wrecks hands, eyes, and heart from nine to five?

I am the city: that sprawls to the sea.

I am the smog: drifting out of LA.

I am the fear: behind locked gates.

I am the voter: who loses hope.

I am the storage block: for dreams deferred.

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How about writing your own song about where you live? Tell truths. Show what is around you.