The Heelers Diaries

the fantasy world of ireland's greatest living poet

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Location: Kilcullen (Phone 087 7790766), County Kildare, Ireland

Saturday, November 04, 2006

a challenge to poets

what are we who immortalise
steel and concrete vanities
of three words given
we are one word
poets artists mathematicians

we have lost the courage
to feel without thinking
to think without gauging cost
come my lords
rally round the cross
with keats kavanagh and old cervantes
mystical romantic or heartbroken
we'll shake the pillars of this concrete heaven

5 Comments:

Blogger Schneewittchen said...

They do say that the rhyming couplet is mightier than the sword.

2:22 AM  
Blogger Chamki said...

I like this one though towards the end I don't know what you are talking about.

7:21 PM  
Blogger heelers said...

Schnee, mightier than the sword but can in no way match the speed and accuracy of a machine gun.
Arf arf.
Chamki, I get that response a lot!
J

8:56 PM  
Blogger heelers said...

Chamki.
Me again.
"come my lords" = A king calling his knights to battle. In this case the king is me (modesty Heelers) and the knights are all you poets of today.
"rally round the cross" = All great art has a spiritual component. The cross is the symbol of Christ's suffering and victory over death.
"with keats kavanagh and old cervantes" = The names are the three immortals of the western literary tradition. Keats is English. Kavanagh is Irish. Cervantes is Spanish. They're the three that count for me because they're the three that make me want to write poetry.
"mystical romantic or heartbroken" = The three states of being from which artists produce art. Three is an important number in my poems. Everything is in threes. In the Christian tradition, three is the number of God.
"we'll shake the pillars of this concrete heaven" = That's what we're going to do. I am indebted to Mr Snake Plisskan,aka the actor Kurt Russell, and his scriptwriter Mr John Carpenter esquire, for the line from Big Trouble In Little China where Snake says: We really shook the pillars of heaven.
Plagiarist, moi?
J

1:27 AM  
Blogger Chamki said...

Thank you.
Now it makes more sense. I only knew Keats in the list of poets!
Ignorant moi!

3:21 AM  

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