Special Guest Olde Godsil
Posted April 17, 2008 by Mary-Liz Shaw
The 20th anniversary of the Earth Day Poets Celebration begins with readings and music at the Urban Ecology Center tonight, then moves to the Coffee House on Saturday for another session of readings.
Milwaukee poet Jeff Poniewaz started the first Earth Day Poets Celebration in 1988 in response to what he considered the anti-environmental policies of the Reagan administration.
Four of the poets who participated in that original Earth Day event continue to read from their works for the celebration every year. They are Poniewaz, whose book “Dolphin Leaping in the Milky Way” was praised by Allen Ginsberg; Suzanne Rosenblatt, who is also a visual artist; Louisa Loveridge-Gallas; and Harvey Taylor, who works as a longshoreman to maintain his life as a poet.
Among the other poets and musicians performing at the anniversary program are percussionist Jahmes Finlayson, who also has performed extensively with Ko-Thi Dance Company; Holly Haebig, who performs regularly with One Drum; and James Godsil, a poet who has formed the collaborative website Milwaukee Renaissance.
Poetry by Godsil
Confessions of a Sissy Roofer
I love my sissy roofer self
Sissy roofers are a very good thing!
Sissy roofers wear gloves while working,
So their hands don’t turn to hooves
Sissy roofers wear knee pads while kneeling,
So their knees don’t fail them before they’re 40!
Sissy roofers are ethnically ambiguous.
They know black and white is an attitude.
They aspire to be golden inside.
Sissy roofers meditate while working
(chop wood carry water pound nails)
Hoping to summon up the virtue for Spontaneous and exuberant hugs.
Of the sweet ones, and courage for Sober dancing in the streets (arms waving high!)
Sissy roofers send their friends to AA
Or family therapists,
Instead of tying one on with the bubbas
And whining about their lot.
Sissy roofers loathe Rush Limbaugh,
Preferring MPR.
They voted for Adalai, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy,
And now tilt toward Obama.
Sissy roofers partner with strong women,
And look forward to the day
When the corporate boys wake up and
Offer 50 pound bundles, so Women, elders, and small bodied peoples
Can ply our noble trade.
Sissy roofers are like the harpooners of Moby Dick,
Except they would never wish to harpoon a whale these days
They would rather ride whales, in the sea and on the land
Sissy roofers read the mystic poets of all of God’s children,
To help them deal when a comrade falls to brain injury or death.
Sissy roofers are obsessive about the use of time…
And attention to detail
If you waste time, you make no money
If you can’t create a roof
That’s like a 100 page manuscript without one typo
You make no money.
Sissy roofers read the Greek tragedians,
To find support in facing up to this highly painful world of being
Sissy roofers have a chance to climb high on the roofs at 60
Macho roofers are done for, in the main, around 40
Sissy roofers have more fun
They make more money
They win respect
They respect themselves
If they ever get too old to climb
Sissy roofers will return to the ground
Work with radiant wastes and worms, and
Bring heavenly food to kitchen tables
Working with rather than warding out
The waters of the heavens.
Viva, Sissy Roofers!
There’s Life for Me In My Dad’s Backyard
There’s life for me In my Dad’s backyard!
The sweetest cherry tomatoes I’ve ever had!
Wood chips, veggie surplus,
Brewers yeast, coffee grounds…straw,
Throwing out heat for our winter hoop house,
Food for our 10,000 red wriggler worms all year round,
Who make love with our soil
And give birth to beautiful black gold.
Out black gold is a soil so nutrient rich that red radishes, dark green spinach,
Red chard, light green peas,
Giant yellow sunflowers…arugula and mesclun mix seem to grow overnight!
Our red raspberries are 5 to 6 ft. high!
We’ve 5 tomato varieties fit for the Riviera.
And now this incredible Riverwest artist, Shawn Gurath, has painted two giant horses
Two doves, and either a burning bush
Or the new Eden’s apple tree In a backdrop of perrywinkle blue
On our once ugly garage wall
We see upon looking out our kitchen window.
This backyard alive is in a quite working class ‘hood In a community of 5 emerging planetary villages in…
Bay View, Wisconsin,
On a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan!
I love my Father’s house!
—Olde
Sweet Red Cherry Tomatoes From Your Harambee Garden
Have you ever wished to venture forth beyond
Your primal ancestral circles
And see what’s up in the village
Across the river from your own?
Have you ever longed for sweet red cherry tomatoes so fresh and juicy
The old world Protestant or Catholic in you worries that
Eating them might be some kind of carnal sin?
Have you ever felt the joy of sacred fatigue at the end of a workout in rich soil
Hands in the dirt, good sweat, and joyous work laughter moments with friends?
Have you ever imagined that…
Your nation gave rise to a movement with other nations you are learning to love,
With an eye, strong body, and heart fixed on the prize of ten thousand backyard city farms.
With 4 chickens (no rooster) each
(Roosters visit from the early rising towns)
Eyes on the prize of…
Ten Thousand community farms and gardens, in old industrial city neighborhoods,
Transforming themselves into
Planetary villages of grace, beauty, and health?
And the nation chose a leader who could understand all this!
—Olde
The Mouse and the Worm Transformed Milwaukee
There was a time when everyday people were too disconnected to intensely engage and prevail in turf and other struggles with the commercial classes.
But then the mouse of the internet connected them so well that powerful visions spread like prairie fire and quite “small” people became quite large and began to prevail and save sacred buildings and sacred spaces in the face of outraged opposition from the commercial classes.
There was also a time when everyday people were too disconnected from their ancestral power to grow healthy and tasty food in their yards and ‘hoods.
But then the worms of Will Allen’s Growing Power were spread so widely to the four season kitchen and community gardens that Milwaukee awakened to the folly of reliance on food from distant places grown primarily for profit and often with frightening disregard for health, safety, and evolution.
And 10,000 gardens blossomed in neighborhoods once written off as ghetto and violent and ugly, and the people reconnected with nature, used waste products for radiant energy, became strong and sure enough to ask neighbors for favors and found themselves walking the sidewalks and biking the streets past corner community gardens of beauty and conviviality.
The mouse helped connect people in the realm of mind. the worms helped connect people in the realm of body. The mouse and the worms helped connect people in the realm of …Soul!
Lovingly Composting The One Dimensional Man
We need not worry to bury the one dimensional man.
Why not intend him, gently, gracefully… compassionately, away…
Into the compost pile of the human race.
It’s time for the one dimensional man to go away.