What a truly marvellous poem! I just love these lines that are so relevant once again in a world where people are becoming so divided over politics and power and seem to forget that there's more to life than this:
Know the terrain well Bowery, Beautiful Bowery. Home of the bums, children of pain congregating on the sidewalk in front of CBGBs, Jean Cocteau Repertory where I saw Henry V set in Vietnam... now just another victim of redeveloped wasteland of landmarked architecture. Great poem, Jack Micheline!
Interesting that having bleacker street in the opening line foreshadowed hookers and death in a sad city, as I recall: “Cindy’s crying but it ain’t no use, she’s got the habit and she can’t break loose… on bleecker street” wherever that is-Apparently in the mind of recalling poets and song writers of long ago.
What a truly marvellous poem! I just love these lines that are so relevant once again in a world where people are becoming so divided over politics and power and seem to forget that there's more to life than this:
'there is something deeper than the earth
there is something deeper than the stone cities
there is something deeper than our existence
than all the robes of power '
- Jack Micheline (1960)
Wonderful. Rooted in life. Thank you.
Desolation of life, human and otherwise, description of humankind’s tomb
"Battlefields surrounded by iron and ironies" is brilliant
A visionary. Yet here we are. Nothing has changed.
This poem, with many other great Micheline works, appears in his collection Cockymoon at Zeitgeist-Press.com. Jack Micheline lives!
Know the terrain well Bowery, Beautiful Bowery. Home of the bums, children of pain congregating on the sidewalk in front of CBGBs, Jean Cocteau Repertory where I saw Henry V set in Vietnam... now just another victim of redeveloped wasteland of landmarked architecture. Great poem, Jack Micheline!
What poet has not taken this walk?
Interesting that having bleacker street in the opening line foreshadowed hookers and death in a sad city, as I recall: “Cindy’s crying but it ain’t no use, she’s got the habit and she can’t break loose… on bleecker street” wherever that is-Apparently in the mind of recalling poets and song writers of long ago.
Incredible
Nice a fellow poet
it's not great at all
Cool story.
Yes....I remember that street / walk before it was cvs / sweet greens and John Varvatos stores, that urban scene was so beautiful and fierce.
That is a wonderful photo of Jack. Is the photographer Mark Christal?
oh wow!
Reading words that match my soul is like feeling your hand in mine and laughing down lonely canyons …
LAUGHING DOWN LONELY CANYONS
James Kavanaugh
Fear corrodes my dreams tonight and mist has greyed my hills,
Mountains seem too tall to climb, December winds are chill.
-There's no comfort on the earth,
I am a child abandoned,
Till I feel your hand in mine
And laugh down lonely canyons.
Snow has bent the trees in grief,
my summer dreams are dead,
Flowers are but ghostly stalks,
the clouds drift dull as lead.
-There's no solace in the sky,
I am a child abandoned,
Till we chase the dancing moon And laugh down lonely canyons.
Birds have all gone south too soon and frogs refuse to sing,
Deer lie hidden in the woods, the trout asleep till spring.
-There's no wisdom in the wind,
I am a child abandoned,
Till we race across the fields
And laugh down lonely canyons.
Darkness comes too soon tonight, the trees are silent scars,
Rivers rage against the rocks and snow conceals the stars.
-There's no music in the air,
I am a child abandoned,
Till I feel my hand in yours And laugh down lonely canyons.