There’s been a lot going on lately. And yet I still stumble across these poems from time to time like I was telling Heather this morning. This particular poem came from my son. He likes pirates. A LOT. Every day we play pirates at lunch. Nearly every night we play pirates.
We hung cheap hammocks in our backyard, not because we want hammocks, but because pirates sleep in hammocks.
Then one day on the way to church, I discovered the pirate stickers on my son’s Gideon Bible. Hmmm.
Is this sacrilegious, I wondered. A jolly roger Bible? Of course, to my son, pirates are everything that is infinitely cool. He doesn’t understand the ins and outs of theology and ethics. A pirate sticker on a Bible is just his way of playing pirates with God.
So I figured there was a poem in this. I was expecting something like the little boy version of “Barbies at Communion.” Instead I got this darker poem…
Freedom
The pirate gospel pleases people
so anchor your soul with profit.
Make your own hope. Bite diligence
like a steel blade and swab the deck
until your face burns with zeal,
a red effort to promote yourself
first mate. Most pirates swear
by stuff of earth. O Man. Holy flesh.
Blast it all. Sex and defecation
words destroy. Anyone who signs up
can board and learn the tongue
that preaches this bloody hope.
Atonement anchors pirate priests:
I will bless you. Follow me.
And because poetry is an auditory art, you can hear me read the poem by clicking play below.
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12 comments ↓
What an amazing poem. I’ve never considered how much whichever “crew” we sign with determines how we spend our days.
Peace,
bt
brotherterrysimmons’s last blog post..Walking on the Thin Edge…
Can I come play with you? Pirates are all that is good and cool. Pirates and mafia.
Heather Goodman’s last blog post..Creativity in the Sanctuary
Oh, you have got to check out this site, a store dedicated to the buccaneers in your life, and it doubles as a tutoring center for the kids in SF!
http://www.826valencia.org/store/
@bt, thanks. I hadn’t thought of church as joining a crew exactly, but you’re right.
@Heather, it will be a few years before I get to watch Donny Brasco with Lyle. I hadn’t linked pirates and mafia before.
@Michael, thanks for stopping by! 826 Valencia is affliated with McSweeney’s, an old haunt of mine. Haven’t been there in awhile, but they have some good nuggets if you don’t mind sifting through the edginess.
Just visited there and found First Drafts of the Parables of Jesus. So you’ll see what I mean about edginess.
I suppose that reading wasn’t supposed to make me laugh. But it did. It was just so honest.
(A little context here… I laughed during the opening of Sleepless in Seattle. As I recall, my spouse was knocking me in the ribs because the scene was a funeral… not your regular laughing fare. I don’t know how to explain my sense of humor sometimes. It just is what it is.)
L.L. Barkat’s last blog post..Re-entry
@LL, it’s ok to laugh. The poem was originally intended to be even funnier, but that bitter edge came out anyway.
Just the other day, I was in the bathroom and asked my daughter to give me a little privacy.
She kindly left, and as she was closing the door she said, “Yes, mommy. I’ll let you have your pirate’s feet.”
I know that’s not adding any depth to the conversation here, but since it was about pirates (and it’s Friday), I thought I would add.
spaghettipie’s last blog post..Steph’s Hydrangea
@spaghettipie, Thanks for the silliness. It’s been somewhat lacking of late.
Verily, verily, I dub your daughter “Princess Malaprop.”
Whatever you do, don’t give him the idea that you’re worried about this. I’m laughing thinking about it. My middle child was a little OCD about things. She got stuck on Tigger and we lived with Tigger and talked about Tigger and watched Winnie the Pooh stuff until we all thought we were going to just puke from the horror of it.
Then one day she was like, “Tigger who?”
real live preacher’s last blog post..Looking Carefull at Ourselves
Gordon, you crack me up.
So much visuals in my head. Picturing Jesus with an eye patch on playing pirates with your son is priceless.
No it is not sacrelidge, God relates to us however he needs to so he can have the relationship. For your son, and my son and many others, it is as a pirate with an eye patch.
“avast you scirvy little ones, knowest ye how much I love thee?”
Marcus,
I feel like I’m late getting to this party but that was excellent. I may link to this in the future - like say “Talk like a pirate day.”
Any place or link where all your poetry can be accessed?
-Sam
Sam’s last blog post..Flight of the Christians
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