Parable of the Poet

Parable of the Poet

It is not about money, fame or fortune. Not about ego, greed and domination. It is not about the teacher but the students who are taught the higher things of life, above the things below. It is not about attacking the politician, the man of religion or education, for there is a duty that comes to the poet--beyond nursery rhymes and beats, pussy and dick jingles and a turn of phrase, a cute metaphor or simile.

It is beyond all this in the realm of the poet man who stands on the corner at the gate of the city, enduring all the pain of a people, the trauma, unresolved grief, the ignorance, abandonment of children lost to the street, the frustration of mothers and fathers bewildered with sons and daughters out of control, seeking their way in ways leading to nothingness and dread.

And so they come to the poet for rhymes and reasons. I must talk with you right now, they say, mother and father anxious for solutions for daughters and sons lost in traffic, trying to find their way in the madness of the city, in the darkness of the night.

The fog is in and they are bewildered by the mist of the fog. What is the meaning of manhood and womanhood? It is a search for sexual identity with no rules in the house. The children become prostitutes yet too ignorant to make money. Young mothers with children come home without money for Pampers for their child. Young brothers are consumed by drugs yet say they are pimping in the night.

Gay and lesbian youth turn tricks for a bed on the floor or couch. Rejected by parents, they are prey in the street. Who really loves them, who really cares? Are they men, women, what is their identity? Some confused, tricked and lost on the way to grandmother's house.

We never imagined a mother could hate a child, a father could abandon a family for no price. And yet such is the time and the hour of our need. Children can go nowhere, nor can fathers and mothers, for they are caught in the conundrum of a spirituality that bonds one together when one is oblivious to the bond, when one is in denial and delusion. And so it is a mad circus with clowns all around. The wise laugh at the circus come to town.
--Marvin X
7/15/10