Saturday, July 09, 2005

The Romantic's Ghetto


2 “and he began to teach them saying: 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
I have an on and off relationship with poetry. There are times I love working in it and times when I don’t. There those times, those rare times, when the words just seem to flow. Most often, though, I agonize over them.

I wrote the poem that follows some time ago. It’s one of those I agonized over for days. Many who read my blog assume that I’m a Midwesterner, but it’s not really the Midwest that has shaped me. I grew up the tenements and housing projects of inner city Boston. The sights and sounds of those early years of my life are always with me.

I hope that in reading this short piece you, the reader, will get a glimpse into the places I call my roots:

The Romantic's Ghetto
By
Phil Dillon

Some say their roots are in the land
In the strength and dignity of furrowed country rows
Mine are in the blaze of neon
Giving light and breath to the tenements lining ghetto streets.

Some say their faith was honed on cathedral glass
And sharpened by regal priestly robes
Mine was cut on jagged ghetto glass
And purified by the clatter of subway steel.

Some say they have an eye for distant landscapes
Or the refined beauty of a mountain stream.
Mine is tuned to a ragged ghetto face
Or the cloistered ghetto masses forgotten by the rush of time.

Where's the dignity of life to be found?
In the land? In a stream?
For some it is for sure.....Where is it then for me?
It's the romance of the Ghetto that will always fill my soul.

© 2002 Phil Dillon

2 comments:

Feeble Knees said...

Love that dirty water...

nicely said neighbor :)

Feeble

EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima said...

Dear Sir,
I read you as a duty.
Your devotion to your faith is also my inspiration.

I am a Christian philanthropist and I do preach as well.
Your posts on Charles Darwin and the Romantic's Ghetto are engaging.
I pray for all the atheists and ignorant ones.

I was born in a tenement house in a neighbourhood called Obalende in Lagos, Nigeria. And our own ghettos are worse than American or European ghettos. In our own ghetto, 20 to 25 tenants could be sharing one toilet and one bathroom for up to 20 years. And I have lived among the richest Nigerians as well. I now live in the best residential area in Nigeria, the NIGERIA LNG RA on Bonny Island in Nigeria. But, I often join my brethren of the Assemblies of God Church to go and preach the Good News to the poor in the ghettos outside our estate.

Please, publish your collection of poems now that the Divine Inspiration is upon you. If you want a publishing deal from Amazon.com, let me know.

God bless.