Jul 31, 2009

CHICAGO POEM by Lew WELCH for Logan Ryan SMITH on the eve of his departure from SF to CHI...


"I lived here nearly 5 years before I could
meet the middle western day with anything approaching
Dignity. It's a place that lets you
understand why the Bible is the way it is:
Proud people cannot live here.

The land's too flat. Ugly, sullent and big it
pounds men down past humbleness. They
Stoop at 35 possibly cringing from the heavy and
terrible sky. In country like this there
Can be no God but Jahweh.

In the mills and refineries of its south side Chicago
passes its natural gas in flames
Bouncing like bunsens from stacks a hundred feet high.
The stench stabs at your eyeballs.
The whole sky green and yellow backdrop for the skeleton
steel of a bombed-out town..."

gonna miss you dude...wish you weren't going...good luck in that "bombed-out town"!

1 comment:

Logan Ryan Smith said...

thanks, john! and while this poem may have been intended to make me think poorly of my future destination, i think it may have made it seem even more appealing!

miss y'all.

may jahweh bless you!!!