FootHills Publishing | home

Poets on Peace #10 - Like A Dry Land - Vincent F. A. Golphin

Vincent F. A. Golphin teaches Creative Writing, Literature and Cultural Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an award-winning writer and journalist, who continues to freelance and is managing editor of about …time, a national news and feature magazine based in Rochester, New York.

For more than 25 years, his articles, poems, essays and stories have appeared in a wide range of publications that include national magazines such as Christianity Today, National Catholic Reporter, Emerge, Washington Living, and Upstate New Yorker; literary journals such as Bridges, Drylongso, Fyah, Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine, Mental Satin and Southern Poetry.

His books include Life and Other Things I Know: Poems, Essays and Short Stories, Take Two, They're Small and African-American Children's Anthology, African-American Stories: My First Treasury, and Grandma Loves You: My First Treasury.

From the book:

LIKE A DRY LAND

Like the scorched earth of the Hebrew poet

my heart and soul thirsts

for that fevered soil

of mystery, legend and strife

where Jesus, Allah and Jehovah

stand astride and smile upon their children

who daily rend their legacies like a sinner's robes

in feuds fueled by the blood in their bones.

I look at the little they have left behind,

that which the hand of god

set in place

stark and silent

to teach me an eternal truth -

politics is the least permanent reality.

human wants and desires blow about

more swiftly and easily than the billions of sand grains

before me, and when all the ideas

of this age are past

stony piles and creeping dryness

remain to cover the loss of lives

past lies and betrayals

the efforts of finite fingers to fashion

paradise on a tortured land they have betrayed.

I leave with but a glimpse, a

notion, that even to understand

the language of my hosts

is not to know that place

the lesson of its truth

is written on the soul.

Hand-stitched chapbook.

Eight Dollars $8.00

ISBN 0-941053-91-1

TO ORDER Like A Dry Land ON-LINE

To order through mail click here

Thank you for your support!


	FootHills Publishing \| home 2006 Books \| Czarnecki \| The Dire Elegies \| POP 10 \| Poets on Peace #11 \| SF 56, 57, 58 \| SF 59, 60, 61 \| SF 62, 63 \| Lowenstein \| Janus \| Holley \| Minar \| Kennedy \| Emorine \| Stowell \| Jackson \| Mullen \| Coon AWAY \| Curry \| Evans \| Hallowell \| Guruianu \| Bauer \| Gilman \| Susquehanna Watershed Antholgy \| Leichner \| Nixon \| Bruce Bennett \| Poets on Peace #12 \| Ordering by Mail \| Contact FHP Poets on Peace #10 - Like A Dry Land - Vincent F. A. Golphin Vincent F. A. Golphin teaches Creative Writing, Literature and Cultural Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an award-winning writer and journalist, who continues to freelance and is managing editor of about …time, a national news and feature magazine based in Rochester, New York. For more than 25 years, his articles, poems, essays and stories have appeared in a wide range of publications that include national magazines such as Christianity Today, National Catholic Reporter, Emerge, Washington Living, and Upstate New Yorker; literary journals such as Bridges, Drylongso, Fyah, Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine, Mental Satin and Southern Poetry. His books include Life and Other Things I Know: Poems, Essays and Short Stories, Take Two, They're Small and African-American Children's Anthology, African-American Stories: My First Treasury, and Grandma Loves You: My First Treasury. From the book: LIKE A DRY LAND Like the scorched earth of the Hebrew poet my heart and soul thirsts for that fevered soil of mystery, legend and strife where Jesus, Allah and Jehovah stand astride and smile upon their children who daily rend their legacies like a sinner's robes in feuds fueled by the blood in their bones. I look at the little they have left behind, that which the hand of god set in place stark and silent to teach me an eternal truth - politics is the least permanent reality. human wants and desires blow about more swiftly and easily than the billions of sand grains before me, and when all the ideas of this age are past stony piles and creeping dryness remain to cover the loss of lives past lies and betrayals the efforts of finite fingers to fashion paradise on a tortured land they have betrayed. I leave with but a glimpse, a notion, that even to understand the language of my hosts is not to know that place the lesson of its truth is written on the soul. Hand-stitched chapbook. Eight Dollars $8.00 ISBN 0-941053-91-1 TO ORDER Like A Dry Land ON-LINE To order through mail click here Thank you for your support!