 29 Oct 2001 @ 11:22, by Merilene_M. Murphy
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my first religion is eavesdropping (letter to joseph campbell 2001 poetry contest director)
written 03.31.01
03.31.01
dear contest director:
my first religion is eavesdropping & what others call symbolically transcribing what is heard writing, i call epiphany. in my early manuscripts, i find myself pulled by some ethereal hook off a stage where i was to perform as poetic dervish but did not dance.
at 13 i wrote the world is a snake grass pit: running.../ running.../ down/ into the heavy slashes of rain/ across the slimy wet grass/ my tender bare feet trying to get/ a sure grip on each slender strand/ but i can't and i go/ tumbling.../ tumbling.../ down. At 45, i still love it even if it is the kind of poem, reportage without resolve, that i no longer write. i remember the day in 1968 i wrote it. i was at camp in vermont at the community for the performing arts, an exchange program for innercity and rural children gifted in the arts. i was sitting alone on a hill outside the pottery barn, resigned from participation in spite of looming rain clouds. i was bored out of my skull & entertaining myself with forecasts of a shallow summer only my parents could have condemned me to when everything real was jumping off in harlem. a counselor came looming. caught me by surprise. i remember her bare feet & looking up what seems a mile to her smiling, "whatcha doin'?" of course my "nothing" was unacceptable & before i knew it sara had me writing a poem. i remember being directed to run down the hill to get an experience to fodder the poem. i never fell. there was a whole lot going on but i chose in my poem the easy route, to rely on opposites.
i have struggled over the years to verbalize what is not so easy to verbalize understandably. i have chosen not to play the opposites. i hope you enjoy the three poems i have sent: forward & unbroken, never on a full moon & it seems. these are my personal grapplings with my own faith in universal intelligence & my humble participation in the collective myth of creating a humanely & ecologically responsible world.
in words & deeds, peace
all ways always
merilene m. murphy (peazritr@mediaone.net)
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