Iam reading MIKE STONE tonight. Wow, mesmerizing poetry. I know his themes are sour white as a full moon or pitch black as midnight and sometimes his verses speak God and creation, his satire taunts creation and his metaphor haunts evil to brighten from dark to light. His imagery talks to descendants of David and against Goliath. He wrote on petals, he spat lyrics on tree leaves and signature poetry on the red clay earth of this world and poetry washes the dirty laundry of history , digital forests and life .STONE slings poetic vibe to the unrepentant, to the dead and sleeping living to rise and face the traumatizing realities of the modern world, his poems exorcise bending grandsons and demon- cursed grand-daughters from the clutches of evil. The verses are fat with reason and glow with live spirit. MIKE STONE is a laureate of words and a maestro of letters. Tonight, TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC is gratified feature Prolific American Poet Mike Stone. We enjoy to engage and walk along lanterns of literacy and candles of poesy by the Iconic Mike Stone.
INSIDE THE POETIC STEW
By the River JordanRaanana, August 5, 2015Once upon a time forgotten,
Or so they say,
God walked alongside Abraham
On goat paths crisscrossing mountains
When they were still new and green,
When Moriah was not yet named.
But sometime later God took his angels
And his box of miracles to his bosom
Leaving us to our own devices,
Existentialism and science.
Perhaps because our faith was not enough,
Because we understood the letter
And not the spirit,
Because His creation could not create
But only destroy itself,
He left us to ourselves.
We fought our enemies oh so bravely
But, when the enemy was ourselves, capitulated.
Now we live in a moral flatland,
Two dimensional creatures on a yellowing page
Without height or depth.
We kill because we can,
We hate and hatred makes a home of death.
By the River Jordan,
By the caves of Qumran,
By the hills of Jerusalem,
We lay down and wept for thee Zion.
© 2015 by Mike Stone (from “Yet another Book of Poetry”)
A Tale of Two CitiesRaanana, October 9, 2015It was the blessed of cities
It was the cursed of cities,
A city located halfway between heaven and earth
And a city halfway between earth and hell,
A city where stones are cool and soft
From evening breezes and countless feet
A city where stones are hot with blood
And sharp with crashing down on heads,
A city purchased with the blood of David
From Jebusites for more than it was worth,
A city worth more today than the blood of all our children,
One city’s Mount Moriah where Isaac was bound for sacrifice
Another’s Al-Masjid al-Aqsa where Mohammed ascended,
A city protected by youthful soldiers
And a city defiled by youthful soldiers,
Jerusalem the capital of Israel
And al-Quds the capital of Palestine
But in truth the capital of no earthly nation,
A city twice destroyed
A city indestructible,
A city about which everything said is true
And one about which nothing said is true.
© 2015 by Mike Stone (from “Yet another Book of Poetry”)
Ode to a Lover
(inspired by a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008)Raanana, March 15, 2019I read a poem sometime between dawn and coffee;
It told of a man whose beloved’s eyes
Pierced his heart with thorns and
I knew eyes like that once.
His beloved deserted him for another
And my heart also knew what he had felt
But his beloved somehow became a land,
A slight sliver of a land insignificant
In the grand scheme of things,
But the land he loved none-the-less
More than life itself,
A land much like the land I love
To walk its meandering paths with Daisy.
But then his land turned out to be my land
That had deserted him for me
And my country counted him among our enemies.
Then I understood how a land
Cannot desert its poets
And when it opens up its womb
To accept its prodigal sons,
It does so in love.
© 2019 by Mike Stone (from “Call of the Whippoorwill”)
Outside of Eden’s Garden
As it is written,
God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac,
Whom he loved, to Mount Moriah
To make of him a burnt offering to Him
But sent only a messenger
To stay Abraham’s raised knife.
As it is written,
Moses led the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery
Through the sea and deserts to the Land of Canaan
Where from the top of Mount Nebo
Moses saw his people enter
The Promised Land without him
Because God forbade him entry,
A man with a single doubt
Without whom his people would have perished.
And as it is written,
God put Job in the hands of Satan
On condition that he spare Job’s life
Because Job was righteous,
No matter what evil might befall him
Just to win a bet with Satan
Who destroyed everyone and everything
That poor Job had or loved.
Sometimes it is difficult
To tell the difference between God and Satan
Or justify His mysterious moves
But the truth is
We’ve outgrown Him
As we must if we’re to survive
Outside of Eden’s garden.
September 7, 2019
© 2019 by Mike Stone (from “The Hoopoe’s Call”)
MIKE STONE was born in Columbus Ohio, USA, in 1947. He graduated from Ohio State University with a BA in Psychology. He has served in both the US Army (stationed in Germany) and the Israeli Defense Forces. Mike has been writing poetry since he was a student at OSU. He has published five books of poetry (“The Uncollected Works of Mike Stone”, “Yet another Book of Poetry”, “Bemused”, “Call of the Whippoorwill”, and “The Hoopoe’s Call”), a book of essays, and four science fiction novels (“Why Is Unit 142857 Sad? Or the Tin Man’s Heart”, “The Rats and the Saps”, “Whirlpool”, and “Out of Time”). He had supported his writing habit by working as a computer programmer, specializing in information security. Now he is retired. Mike moved to Israel in 1978 and has lived in a town called Ra’anana ever since. He is married to his beloved wife, Talma, has three wonderful sons, and seven precious grandchildren (so far).Mike has had poetry published in anthologies, such as “The Last Stanza” in support of the African Refugee Development Center, “Voices Israel 2011”, and “Arc 22” (2012) . He has had poems translated into Spanish (Poémame 2019). He is currently translating a collection of poems into Hebrew (“לא מאותו מסטינג”). Mike’s native language is English, but he also speaks Hebrew, Spanish, and German in various degrees of fluency.
Check out his blog at http://uncollectedworks.wordpress.com/. You can read his latest poetry (“The Meandering”), short stories, and essays, while they are still works in progress. Mike also has an Amazon author’s page at https://www.amazon.com/Mike-Stone/e/B006VCWBE4.
PorCuPineQuill is authored and edited by Mbizo CHIRASHA
MBIZO CHIRASHA IS the Freedom of Speech Fellow to PEN- Zentrum Deutschland,Germany. 2019 African Fellow of the International Human Rights Arts Festival in NewYork, USA.Literary Arts Activism Diplomatie. Globally Certified Arts Mediums Curator and Influencer. Internationally Published Page and Spoken Word Poet. Writer in Residence. Arts for Human Rights Catalyst. Core Team Member of the Bezine Arts and Humanities Project. His illustrious poetry , hybrid writings , political commentary ,short fiction , book reviews and Arts Features are published in more than 400 spaces notably the Monk Arts and Soul in Magazine in United Kingdom. Atunis Poetry.com in Belgium. Demer press poetry series in Netherlands. World Poetry Almanac in Mongolia.Poesia journal in Slovenia. Bezine Arts and Humanities Webzine in USA. The Poet a Day in Brooklyn ,USA. Litnet Writers Journal in South Africa. African Crayons in Nigeria. Poetry Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Pulp-pit USA.the FictionalCafe international Journal , Texas USA. Best New African Poetry series in Zimbabwe, Zimbolicious Poetry Collections in Zimbabwe. Co-edited Street Voices International Publications with Andreas Weiland in Germany.Co-Edited Silent Voices Anthology, a Tribute to Chinua Achebe.
Comments