Confession
No man was ever saved by confessing the sins of another. —American proverb
I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James I have trod the upward and the downward slope I have had playmates, I have had companions It was a bowl of roses I stand alone through each long day I feed a flame within, which so torments me I would that all men my hard case would knowI have ships that went to sea I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
It was many and many a year ago I came into the City and none knew me I travell'd among unknown men It was a summer evening It was not in the Winter I stood by the open casement Is there anybody there? said the Traveller It was a tall young oysterman lived by the river-side It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord I've known rivers, I've known rivers
In a dark hour, tasting the Earth I took my power in my hand I felt a funeral in my brain, and mourners to and fro I felt a cleavage in my mind I fear'd the fury of my wind Into my heart an air that kills I'm red pepper in a shaker I flung me round him If the red slayer think he slays If the quick spirits in your eye If to be absent were to be If suddenly a clod of earth should rise I dug, beneath the cypress shade
In after days when grasses high In a green meadow, a river running by In a quiet water'd land, a land of roses In going to my naked bed as one that would have slept I hear in my heart, I hear in its ominous pulses I have a rendezvous with Death In the hall the coffin waits, and the idle armourer stands I remember, I remember
Shannon Holman, New York, 2001
