SOURCING THE WORD

Ephesians 4: 16 The Card Game Exploring the Bible Verse

SOURCING THE WORD

Source for the cards comes from

the free play of thought

from Ephesians 4:16

from carrying the verse

handed to me in the oral tradition

by the old Icelandic pastor

45 years ago. Harald Sigmar, his name.

He was helping me with my truth telling.

Speak the truth in love, Jim.

I got it there, then, carrying it

as part of my practice,

as best I was able. In the mountains

a month ago, two pastors from Texas,

Austin, Dr. Mark Washington, Michael Coffey,

one AME, one Lutheran, arrive

at the hermitage with, but

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Source, as I said, comes from

the free play of thought,

which is the breakthrough image

of Vasily Grossman’s Russian novel,

Life and Fate, the novel arrested during

Grossman’s life, and he never saw his epic

in print. Free play of thought.

Speaking the truth in love.

An earlier source, William Tyndale’s

1534 translation in English reads,

Follow the truth in love. Have at it.

Tyndale, skinned alive, opened the way

for the Committee resulting in the King James translation.

Take your pick. Choose both.

They brought this project,

Washington and Coffey, they call

the Ephesians Project. Talking

about race in America. In churches. Talking

with love. Speaking, following.

Can we talk about it? They had slides,

evolving ones, and as fast as I was taking notes

I couldn’t get it all, and found I could

take notes with my Iphone. Those images!

Those images, I thought, on arriving

home, we could make a post card

of Ephesians 4:16 itself with verse and question,

Have you had the opportunity to speak truth in love?

Did you? No? Why not? Karen did that

and turned up the color, printing the card

the color of the Bleeding Heart

hanging in the basket over your porch.

Vibrant and passionate post cards.

Poems written on the back,

stamped and put in the mail.

I write to Washington and Coffey,

tell them about it, and then,

brushing my teeth in the bathroom,

a deck of cards left by grandchildren,

cards, smaller than a post card,

brought back from some casino

punched-out and discarded

showing the Ace of Clubs.

Karen, can you make cards,

I mean playing cards, can

we play this card? In a country

where we can’t talk,

we get a free play. As for the question

about the source, your call.

Jim Bodeen

15 September 2019

Sprung from the Free Play of Thought

SPRUNG FROM THE FREE PLAY OF THOUGHT

            --for Anne Basye

Fingers on piano keys leave melody

for the wild outside discovered by Ruth

walking through boundaries with Naomi.

With or without you, she will not ask

for permission. Who among us

would not think the air belongs to all?

The Russian poet never hesitates.

His neighbor turns him in for a second room.

Garden sanctuaries give us time

to hold small stones in our hands,

hand-polishing them for richer patina.

Each stone, river-shaped, broken,

broken-free, from somewhere far, becomes

instead of sand, when lifted, a song.

Jim

24 August 2019

TAKE 10,000 PICTURES

OUTSIDE COUNTY JAIL, WITH ROB

Take 10,000 pictures of my sign.

If I surface too fast, I'll start to schmooze.

After qualifying as an ICE Raid Verifier

I wanted to drink Black Daniels with Jesus.

I have been diagnosed for some time.

Here are some tips for filming ICE:

Protection granted under 4th Amendment.

Your sign chants, your word might whisper.

Code your phone. You can

record in public places.

Film all the way through. Don't walk with jerks.

All laughter fierce and calm.

Impersonal principles we said,

cameras dangerous as poems

Jim

30 August 2019

JUST THIS, ELIZABETH

JUST THIS ELIZABETH

It's hard to be judging when

you're curious, Elizabeth.

This prayer goes through you to God.

When I forgive myself it's not me.

Blessing arrives from somewhere

I don't know. Here it is,

a post card in the mail

from my own hand. Post-

marked by the government.

From Holden, traveling with Karen,

in a boat towards my down-lake self.

Deep water unbound in time.

Jim Bodeen

10 September 2019

STEPPING INTO SURPRISE

STEPPING INTO SURPRISE

            for Rev. Dr. Mark Washington

            and for Rev. Michael Coffey

The title that drew me in led me

towards praise, but not to forgetting

who I was. Text itself led me to wonder.

Jim Bodeen

9 September 2019

FLIGHT 26, A SONGLINE

FLIGHT 26: A SONGLINE

What is description?

I guess this is a movie about a chain-link fence. jb

NOTES ON FLIGHT 26 SUNDAY MORNING

              --for Carol Folsom-Hill

You can't see the number of chains

and links around the detainees

do you hear Joan singing to St. Augustine

but the chains circle the waist

and hands and feet both shackled

you can see this in my friend's photos

who is out here everyday

on every corner he has the good lens

and fuzzes out the faces of the men

our women chanting through tears

No estan solo, No estan solo

You are not alone the other song

and the first to come up for me

was Arlo's that son of the father

who would be first in my garden

this morning, Woody, here

with Bob of any age old standards

included Good morning America

How are you this being Sunday

Don't you know that I'm your Native Son

Richard Right too don't you know

My friend's photos blind-siding me

this was Flight 26 out of Yakima

78 detainees African Asian chained

the links so many links links

a new word old word in our time

all the links coming down from

power tops not mountains

men descending steps into

one of the many hells of america

Sunday morning coming down

Kris Kristofferson you won't

see those chain links in my movie

but links are everywhere from

behind the fence part of the fence

fence itself an urban word

from back in the day late fifties

maybe my movie though

bad as it is has my friend's narration

telling you what's going on

I'm not knocking my movie

man but when my friend talked

telling me my breathing

went haywire and the camera

sometimes it went to the sky

sometimes just cockeyed

as I got caught up in the listening

of her voice I was standing

behind her camera against

her back between her shoulder

blades there's this one final

image Wallace Stevens'

indictment of Christianity

ok it's not that I'm going too

far, statement of fact but

he does call it Sunday Morning

this being Sunday morning

and all those voters in pews me here

late coffee and oranges

complacency itself among

complacencies watermelon sweet

that plane not this train this train

the boss singing this train

but that plane that plane

plane 26 it's home it's labor day

I wanted to edit this movie down

and I wanted to make it longer too

wanted to walk every man down

the steps even though I know

it's too much to ask but the thing

is this, listener, it's not a chant

it's prayer each one addressed

to that man walking those steps

right now see that's what it is

it's each one personal to each one

and that's why it is like it is

this is not the nightly news no

Aretha, Aretha, this is about

Aretha, chain chain chain

a songline a songline

Jim Bodeen

1 September 2019

A LA CHINGADA

A LA CHINGADA, TRUMP,

her t-shirt read, red ink, after

the witness-vigil at the airport

in our town, ankle-shackled,

cuffed immigrant stop-off

transfer point, contracted

with the city to and from

Tacoma Detention Center

along with deportation,

Get fucked, Trump,

my guess at the urban slang

Do you know about that word,

I ask, is she middle-age, elder,

tears streaming silver-hair beauty

elegant wiping her eyes

Most beautiful taboo

sacred dreamword, chingar,

border crossing gestalt

in Mexican Spanish

richest ancestry darkest soil

don't believe what's said

on street as you believe it

breathing it in, not the little

chingones in your coffee

wombworld gravitating

all your love come down

to this, blossoming

through betrayal, abrecaminos,

way-making through

translation of the wordbody

world transformed

nothing from you taboo

Jim Bodeen

31 August 2019