BUILT(the song of an ancient architect)
Now that I’ve drawn the dreams, driven the stakes
destroyed deserts by division and development
crammed construction into corn-fields
built boxes in bean-fields
Now that I’ve penned the plans, fucked-up the forests
for fortune and foreclosure, plundered prairies
for profit, lost the lakeshores
Now that I’ve cantilevered cabins over cliffs and
hurried highways into hinterlands
Now that I’ve populated the pines
and peopled the pristine
Now that I’ve roofed-over the rural
Now that I’ve floored-over the flood-plain
Now that I’ve blueprinted the Blue Ridge
Now that my pencil
Now that my client
Now that the mortgage
Now that the bank
Now that the zoning
Now that the economy’s in the tank
Now that your hopes are diminished
May I rest? Am I finished?
~ Ralph Murre
10 comments:
Ralph--way to go!
Charlie
yeah. love it.
Yeah, you said it all!
Oh yeah!!!
Whoa! Nice job...or maybe it wasn't such a nice job. But great poem.
Yup. And then there were the developers, the bankers, the mortgage brokers, the real estate sales professionals, the zoning board members, and the politicians who made it all possible.
Ralph - yes sometimes a poet HAS to say it and once again you've "said it" soulfully, perfectly... Thanks for the inspiration, Annie
Ralph, you build gracious houses, poem by poem, where no resource is destroyed and where all are welcomed into your clear space.
Ralph,
Beautifully said, and as always, I hear the cadences of your voice speaking it, especially the lines all starting with "Now."
Maja
This feels like a poem that should be sung, or at least read aloud! I love the rhythm and the musicality of it.
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