Monday, October 1, 2012

Trickster Translation



 image source

I'm working on some poems for Random Acts of Poetry. I'm aiming for one new poem a day this week, so that I will have a pocketful by Saturday when I'll be heading out with a poetry word construction crew between 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

Our route is Calico Coffee House; the Farmer's Market; Starbucks in Chapters--oh dear, you know I boycott both Starbucks and Chapters, but, hey, I'll come up with a poem on plantation coffee with a stab at the Heseg Foundation, funded by Chapters to support the Israeli military; the P.A. Marina Waterfront; and our last stop, on air at LU Radio 102.7 FM, "Betty Howls" with host Lisa Ferris (listen in between 2 -2:30 pm).  


Trickster Translation
      for Althea

Babel.
n. The city mentioned in Scripture
where the confusion of tongues took place;
a confused mixture of sounds;
confusion;
disorder.
from the Akkadian Bāb-ilu,
gate of God

God
is not a gender.
God is not a he
not a him
not a father
or The Father.

God is not a masculine pronoun
a male object
male subject
or proper noun.

God is not a personification
an anthropomorphism
a construction of our English language
limited imagination.

God is not a metaphor
metonymy
an allusion
or allegory.

God is not a word
or The Word.
God is not Logos.
God is not logic,
nor logical.

In our delusion to make sense
of this amazing terrible world
we have made of God
a patriarch
a patriarchal institution.

How illogical.
What a bunch of Babel.

3 comments:

Merche Pallarés said...

Beautiful poem! Is it yours? Hugs, M.

northshorewoman said...

yes, my dear. How are you? Sorry to be so absent but I am just swamped and spending too much time in front of a screen. I will try and find a minute to visit you in space.

Merche Pallarés said...

Don't worry Taina about not visiting my blog, actually, I'm slowly writing less and less, besides I've become very lazy and don't translate my posts... Hugs, M.