Damascus and light (one of many parts)

[jurisprudent]

Can you subtract nothing from nothing,
Or turn water into wine,
Or make stars out of mud and dust?
If one once was right
It is evil that gives birth to good,
And mud that revives beauty.
But the man opened his drawer
Where there was no wine left
And he asked his god for more
And there came nothing,
So he just closed his eyes
And imagined water were wine
But it weren’t
And would not taste like wine but it was water and water only.
I would no more delude myself,
He said,
And said **** you god,
I am alone on my own
And his heart cried only for one thing
Only one thing
The beauty he saw once
Eternal existential
And he cried because it was like the wine
He did not have in his drawer.
Shall I die, he thought,
Or set myself afire?
Or just walk away,
Preferring whiskey
And this bitter
Sour taste
Of past, regret, confusion and end
Setting a bloody gore within.
If mud can give birth to beauty,
Can beauty give birth to mud????

[MorpheusSandman]

This is very good and I love how you develop the wine/water, mud/beauty metaphor throughout the piece. I think it would be stronger if you removed some of the more direct lines such as "and would not taste like wine..." "I would no more delude myself" also sounds quite clunky.

[Buh4Bee]

I don't like to be a knuckle head, but why Damascus as the title? I have read this poem many times and it haunts me. I think poetry can do that sometimes. We just connect to things for being who we are.

[jurisprudent]

The poem is a part of a bigger one which was called "Damascus and light". This is the beginning:


Rays of light,
Under sullen skies
Hidden by the clouds so black and grey
And underneath this bleakness
Shines this little star
Attired in human flesh
That breathes and sighs and laughs and smiles
And rays of light
Would shine and shine on.
If I have seen the light,
And I have been blinded,
And blindness is sickness
But oh so sweet and sour
My bitterness will be innocent
My spite will vanish
And skies would be bleak no more.
Divinity, as spread by rays of light,
Is invisible, without perception,
But material and physical
and present here.
By rays of light
In human flesh
It takes form and stays and breathes
Present.
Divinity would need no alter
No temple and no church,
Its dwelling is so sacred
And it is living,
As the pulse beats within a vein
Of blood
Or feeling
Imagination
Or sheer existence.
Spreading rays of light
Against this bleakness.

It is taken from the story about how saint Paul was blinded on his way to Damascus by light which converted him to Christianity. Here the idea is not about religion but a kind of revelation which was sparked in the real life by a human being and that person's beauty. But the later parts are much more concerned with pain and regret. Nevermind, I hope it is a good poetry.

[Buh4Bee]

No, thank you. The poetry is very good. I'm just trying to understand the references. I also understand now De Profundis is not a reference to Oscar Wilde. My Mistake! Please post more, I am really enjoying them.

[jurisprudent]

De profundis means "from the bottom" and I think it is a sermon taken from the Bible

[Buh4Bee]

Psalm 130, thank you.