PRAYING THE PSALMS/REZANDO LOS SALMOS

 

EVEN MY PRAYERS TO YOU, LORD,

     for Kevin Miller

ARE SUBVERSIVe. Yo soy lo más

subversivo de los pecadores. I am,

aún en mis oraciones--rezando

por el poema--praying more

for the poem than a dialogue

with you. Dichoso el hombre

que no sigue los poetas.

I am blessed by the songs,

black church gospel

interrupting my bullshit,

mi paja, porque tu sabes

que yo anda en mi derrota y rumbo--

and in the Black Church

you have given me surround

sound, Ray Charles

and honey in the rock.

Margin-walking I always ask,

How do you say bullshit

in your village?

Has llenado mi copa a rebosar.

Sandeces, locura. Paja.

I shall not be moved.

We sing without knowing.

My notebook is a singing gospel

shouting, cantando,

plantado a la orilla de un rio.

In the poems of Michael Harper

I am reborn in a blue mask.

Even so, Lord, you listen

a mis delirios quijotescos.

You understand me

en mi prosperidad--

my riches and prosperity.

 

Jim Bodeen

17 September 2020