34 Comments
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Tommy Swerdlow's avatar

Great. Very David L-- only the tortured get to heaven or at least the only heaven worth getting to. Gotta be an homage or at least a companion piece to Bob Kaufman's poem "Camus, I want to know"

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Cal Massey's avatar

Wonderful poem, but please correct final line's first word; Of should be Or, unless Lerner intended a close that seems awkward in its phrasing. If I'm wrong, so be it, but it stole some of the poem's power for me with a grammatical distraction at the end. Thanks for listening.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

You're not alone in that distraction. It really put on the brakes for me too. At least it came at the end.

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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

I fixed it over 24 hours ago. It’s one letter out of thousands upon thousands of words I post a week. It’s bound to happen every now and then.

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Karen S. Bonnell's avatar

my brain simply corrected it - amazing poem. TY for your incredible knowledge sharing!!!

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Irksome, isn't it. Some of us were so engaged in this beautiful poem, this tiny error sounded like fingernails on a blackboard in our brains.

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BB Borne's avatar

Who gets to color the sky? Will ponder that question the rest of my life.

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laure heinz's avatar

Lerner had no fear, freely crashing the gates of decorum with his color saturated, brilliant, god-dazzling word-paint. Thank you for sharing this poem

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Nancy Jainchill's avatar

how many pairs of shoes does it take to

walk to infinity. Ok!

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Ken Paul Rosenthal's avatar

This poem is a stunner. I've got some killer VHS footage of David Lerner reading in San Francisco's Cafe Babar that will be included in my (still in-progress) feature documentary, 'Julia Vinograd: Between Spirit and Stone.' Bucky Sinister, who is quoted at the bottom of today's post, is a featured interviewee in the film.

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Heather's avatar

Hit me right between my eyes! Wow

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TalesandTunes by Sinem's avatar

Wonderful and very timely questions...

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Just Poetry's avatar

Will God let me write in paradise?

Right questions asked

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E J Hermann's avatar

Fantastic gem of a poem, thank you.

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idosuiteB's avatar

The clip ...

The wheat...

The pigment.

Blue Eyes.

& Red Strands of hair.

....

Moderns....

The timeless appeal, to Be, the person usually passed on.

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Mike Kay's avatar

The kind of poetry that does what poetry does best, evokes, liberates and hurls you down into the ashes. Great stuff.

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Ralph Welton's avatar

...and when no hope was left in sight...

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Jeff's avatar

This dimension is only a glimpse of paradise. Selfishness prevails trampling undisturbed on fragile souls like Vincent's He has no answers to such questions. He paints. We, then, if we are are blessed, see something far more beautiful. Some do. The rest make obscene amounts on Vincent's pain.

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Sandra Murzin's avatar

Wow...this really moved me...every sentence gave me a vivid picture in my mind...thanks for sharing;definitely made my day...

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Penni Livingston's avatar

Really cool imagery!

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