The Ancient Rain, Poems 1956-1978

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The Ancient Rain, Poems 1956-1978 Page 4

by Bob Kaufman


  THE WHITE SOUTH SHALL GATHER AT

  PRESERVATION HALL.

  THE AMERICAN SUN

  THE AMERICAN SUN HAS RISEN,

  THE OTHER SUNS HAVE LEFT

  THE SKY, THE POEM HAS ENTERED

  THE REALM OF BLOOD. BLOOD IS

  NOW FLOWING IN ALL SKIES AND

  ALL THE STARS CALL FOR MORE

  BLOOD, THE OLD EMPIRES HAVE

  BEEN BROKEN BY THE AMERICAN

  SUN AND SHALL CEASE TO EXIST

  AS THE POLITICAL ENTITIES THEY

  ONCE WERE, AND CAN NEVER BE

  AGAIN, THE AMERICAN SUN

  BRINGS DEATH TO ALL ENEMY

  EMPIRES, THE AMERICAN SUN BRINGS

  DEATH BY FIRE TO ALL WHO DARE

  OPPOSE THE AMERICAN SUN, EMPIRES

  OF THE PAST ARE BREAKING FROM

  THE CONSTANT POWER OF THE AMERICAN

  SUN, THE AMERICAN SUN CHALLENGES

  ALL OTHER EMPIRES AND DEMANDS

  THEY RESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES

  OF THE AMERICAN SUN, THOSE THAT DO

  NOT RESPOND ARE TO BE BROKEN AND

  BURNED, THE AMERICAN SUN

  OPENS THE GRAVES OF EMPIRES

  THAT FALL TO THE AMERICAN SUN,

  ALL FORMER KINGS AND QUEENS

  OF EMPIRES CRUSHED BY THE

  AMERICAN SUN ARE TAKEN FROM

  THEIR GRAVE AND TOMBS TO EXIST

  IN THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING

  DEAD AND SUFFER THEIR

  FALL TO THE AMERICAN SUN,

  THE PRIESTS OF THE AMERICAN SUN

  ARE STARS IN THE SKIES OF

  ALL ENEMY EMPIRES, THEY ADMINISTER

  THE LAWS OF THE AMERICAN SUN,

  THE AMERICAN SUN DOES NOT GIVE

  MERCY TO EMPIRES FALLEN TO

  THE AMERICAN SUN,

  THE AMERICAN SUN DOES NOT PERMIT

  DISOBEDIENCE, ANY ATTEMPT TO

  DISOBEY THE AMERICAN SUN

  IS PUNISHED BY DEATH AND TOTAL

  DESTRUCTION OF THE OFFENDING EMPIRE,

  THE AMERICAN SUN IS THE

  ONLY SUN, ALL OTHERS ARE

  BROKEN AND TORN FROM THE

  SKY BY THE AMERICAN SUN,

  THE DARK STAR THE ENEMY SUNS

  HAVE BECOME HAS BEEN

  THROWN DOWN ON THE ENEMY’S OWN LAND

  BY THE AMERICAN SUN.

  THE LANGUAGE OF THE AMERICAN

  SUN IS SPOKEN BY STARMEN

  AND STARWOMEN OF AMERICA,

  THE AMERICAN SUN IS AMERICA, AND

  ALL AMERICANS. NO OTHERS

  ARE PERMITTED ON OR IN THE

  AMERICAN SUN. THE AMERICAN

  SUN IS THE ONLY FIRE. ALL OTHERS

  ARE PUT OUT BY THE AMERICAN

  SUN. THE MOON IS THE AMERICAN

  MIDNIGHT SUN AND MUST BE

  OBEYED BY ALL OTHER EMPIRES,

  THE AMERICAN SUN DOES NOT FORGIVE

  ANY ENEMY, BUT PUNISHES EVERY OFFENDER

  WITH DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.

  THE AMERICAN SUN IS AMERICAN

  HOLINESS, THE AMERICAN SUN IS

  THE SUN OF HEAVEN, THE AMERICAN SUN

  IS THE AMERICAN CHURCH, THE AMERICAN

  SUN IS AMERICAN RELIGION, THE

  AMERICAN SUN IS THE LAW, IN ALL

  SKIES, THE AMERICAN

  SUN IS AT WAR WITH ALL ENEMIES

  OF THE AMERICAN SUN, THE AMERICAN

  PLANETS, MARS JUPITER, SATURN VENUS,

  PLUS THE OTHER PLANETS OF

  THE AMERICAN UNIVERSE ARE

  AT WAR WITH ALL OTHER UNIVERSES,

  THE AMERICAN SUN CREATES ALL AMERICAN LIFE.

  THE AMERICAN SUN CREATES ATOMIC

  DEATH ON ALL ENEMIES OF THE SUN, THE AMERICAN

  SUN CALLED THE ATOMIC BOMB IS

  BEING DROPPED ON ALL ENEMY

  CITIES BY THE AMERICAN SUN,

  CALLED THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS,

  THE AMERICAN SUN CALLED

  THE HYDROGEN BOMB, IS BEING

  DROPPED ON ALL ENEMY EMPIRES

  BY THE AMERICAN SUN, CALLED

  THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS, THE

  ENEMIES OF THE AMERICAN

  SUN ARE NOT PERMITTED TO

  SURRENDER, THE AMERICAN SUN

  IS DESTROYING ALL ENEMY EMPIRES,

  WHEN THE AMERICAN SUN

  HAS COMPLETED THE DESTRUCTION

  OF ALL ENEMY EMPIRES, THE

  AMERICAN SUN SHALL CREATE

  THE FIRES OF WAR, BURNING

  ALL OVER AND UNDER THE SKIES

  OF THE CRUCIFIXION, AT THE

  AMERICAN SUN CALLED THE

  CROSS, THE BUDDHA HAS BEEN

  TOPPLED AND HAS BECOME AN

  EASTERN IDOL WITH NO WESTERN

  SKY, THE BUDDHA IS NOW STANDING

  IN FRONT OF THE AMERICAN SUN CALLED

  R.C.A. VICTOR, LISTENING TO HIS MASTER’S VOICE.

  THE BUDDHA HAS A BLACK SPOT ON ONE EAR NOW.

  THE AMERICAN SUN CALLED

  ARTHUR FARNSWORTH TELEVISION

  HAS TORN DOWN THE TEMPLE’S

  WALLS AND DRIVEN THE MONEY-

  LENDERS FROM THE WESTERN

  SIDE OF THE RHINE RIVER TO

  THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE RIVER

  THAT DIVIDES THE GERMAN EMPIRE

  INTO TWO SEPARATE BUT EQUAL

  STATES, THE AMERICAN SUN HAS

  MADE THE MONEYLENDERS

  ERECT A WALL OF THE TORN-DOWN

  TEMPLE OF THE EAST BANK OF THE RIVER

  TO SHIFT THE MONEYLENDER’S POWER

  TO THE SIDE OF THE RIVER THAT IS NEAR

  VIENNA.

  THE AMERICAN SUN CALLED

  THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS

  EXCOMMUNICATED SAVONAROLA

  VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN AND HAS

  FORBIDDEN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

  TO HAVE A CHURCH, OR A CHRISTIAN

  RELIGION, THE RELIGIOUS COURT

  OF HEAVEN HAS PRONOUNCED HIS

  BEHEADING OF THE LADY POPE

  ST. JOAN, AN UNFORGIVABLE SIN,

  HEAVEN FORBIDS RUSSIA TO HAVE

  A CATHOLIC CHURCH, HEAVEN UNDRESSES

  THE BODY OF LENIN IN THE TOMB AND

  DISCOVERS THE LEGS HAVE TURNED BLACK,

  RUSSIAN COMMUNISM IS REFUSED THE

  SACRAMENT BY HEAVEN, PRINCE MIKE ROMANOV

  OF HOLLYWOOD IS THE ONLY RUSSIAN HEAVEN ALLOWS

  IN HEAVEN’S CATHOLIC CHURCH

  THE AMERICAN SUN CALLED

  THE AMERICAN FLAG IS THE

  ONLY FLAG FLYING AT CRUCIFIXION

  CALLED THE EARTH NOW IN THE

  SKIES OF HEAVEN.

  THE AMERICAN SUN IS NOT

  PART OF ANY PEACE MOVEMENT.

  THE AMERICAN SUN IS A

  SUN OF WAR, THE DAYS OF

  PEACE ARE DRAWING

  TO AN END. THE ENEMIES OF

  THE AMERICAN SUN ON THE

  EARTH SHALL SOON BE ATTACKED

  BY THE PURE POWERS OF THE

  AMERICAN SUN. THE ENEMIES OF

  THE AMERICAN SUN IN AMERICA

  HAVE ALREADY BEEN SENT TO

  HELL AT THE AMERICAN

  CRUCIFIXION. HELL IS CALLED

  THX 1138, THE ENEMIES OF

  THE AMERICAN SUN ARE SHOWN

  THEMSELVES ON TELEVISION,

  IT IS FILMED INSIDE THE CROSS

  BY THE AMERICAN SUN.

  UNLIKE BIRTH OF A NATION,

  IT IS NOT IN PUBLIC DOMAIN,

  AT THE CRUCIFIXION,

  THE AMERICAN SUN HAS

  ATTACKED RUSSIA WITH

  NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND MOSCOW

  IS IN FLAMES, THE TOMB OF

  LENIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED,

  THE BODY OF LENIN IS BEING CARRIED THROUGH

  THE CITY . . .

  UNTITLED

  THE EARTH MOVED, AND CHANGED ITS

  ANGLE IN RELATION TO OTHER UNIVERSES,

  THE SPHINX OPENS THE DOOR, HORUS ENTERS

  HIS BEAK EMERGES FROM THE SUN OF

  HIS
HEAD, HORUS ARMS OUTSTRETCHED

  GIVES THE POEM A SUBSTANCE, SET GOES OFF.

  THE TIME OF SET WAS SHORT, HORUS IS

  HERE FOREVER, HORUS ADMIRES THE

  GOLD KING, PHAROAH TUTANKHAMEN,

  AMON RA STANDS WITH OSIRIS AT KARNAK,

  HORUS DIRECTS BOY HORUS TO

  THE FLIGHT, PYLON GENTLE FLIGHT,

  PRUFROCK ENTERS THE

  DOOR TO THE ORIENT

  AND EMERGES SWIMMING.

  FROM A PAINTING BY EL GRECO

  I AM THE ETERNITY THAT WAS HELD

  BY THE OSTRICH EGG.

  THE MAGNIFICENT DECEMBER IS NOW

  NO LONGER HIDDEN.

  THE SUN, I AM ALONE, IS PRESENT FOREVER.

  THE POET

  FROM A PIT OF BONES

  THE HANDS OF CREATION

  FORM THE MIND, AND SHAPE

  THE BODY IN LESS THAN A SECOND.

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  THE POET NAILED TO THE

  BONE OF THE WORLD

  COMES IN THROUGH A DOOR,

  TO LIVE UNTIL

  HE DIES,

  WHATEVER HAPPENS IN BETWEEN,

  IN THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING

  DEAD, THE POET REMAINS ALIVE,

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  THE POET WALKS ON THE EARTH

  AND OBSERVES THE SILENT

  SPHINX UPON THE NILE.

  THE POET KNOWS HE MUST

  WRITE THE TRUTH,

  EVEN IF HE IS

  KILLED FOR IT, FOR THE

  SPHINX CANNOT BE DENIED.

  WHENEVER A MAN DENIES IT,

  A MAN DIES.

  THE POET LIVES IN THE

  MIDST OF DEATH

  AND SEEKS THE MYSTERY OF

  LIFE, A STONE REALITY IN THE

  REALM OF SYMBOLS, FANTASY, AND

  METAPHOR, FOR REASONS

  THAT ARE HIS OWN WHAT IS REAL

  IS THE PIT OF BONES HE COMES

  FROM,

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  SOMEWHERE A BUDDHA SITS IN

  SILENCE AND HOLDS THE

  POET AND THE WORLD IN

  SEPARATE HANDS AND REALIZES HE

  IS BORN TO

  DIE.

  THE BLOOD OF THE POET

  MUST FLOW IN HIS POEM,

  SO MUCH SO, THAT OTHERS

  DEMAND AN EXPLANATION.

  THE POET ANSWERS THAT THE

  POEM IS NOT TO BE

  EXPLAINED. IT IS WHAT IT

  IS, THE REALITY OF THE POEM

  CANNOT BE DENIED,

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  THE POET IS ALONE WITH OTHERS

  LIKE HIMSELF. THE PAIN IS BORN

  INTO THE POET. HE MUST LIVE

  WITH IT. IT IS HIS SOURCE OF

  PURITY, SUFFERING HIS

  LEGACY,

  THE POET HAS TO BE A

  STONE.

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  WHEN THE POET PROTESTS THE

  DEATH HE SEES AROUND

  HIM,

  THE DEAD WANT HIM SILENCED.

  HE DIES LIKE LORCA DID,

  YET LORCA SURVIVES IN HIS

  POEM, WOVEN INTO THE DEEPS

  OF LIFE. THE POET SHOCKS THOSE

  AROUND HIM. HE SPEAKS OPENLY

  OF WHAT AUTHORITY HAS DEEMED

  UNSPEAKABLE, HE BECOMES THE

  ENEMY OF AUTHORITY. WHILE THE

  POET LIVES, AUTHORITY

  DIES. HIS POEM IS

  FOREVER.

  WHEN THE POET DIES,

  A STONE IS PLACED ON

  HIS GRAVE, IT IS HIM,

  A PIT OF BONES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT,

  IN THE PIT OF BONES

  A SKY OF STARS, A HEAVEN OF

  SUNS AND MOONS, AND THE GREAT

  SUN IN THE CENTER,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  A MASK CREATED IN THE PIT

  IS THE IMAGE OF THE POET.

  THE IMAGE OF THE POET

  IS A

  SECRET.

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  I HAVE WALKED IN THIS WORLD

  WITH A CLOAK OF DEATH WRAPPED

  AROUND ME. I WALKED ALONE, EVERY

  KISS WAS A WOUND, EVERY SMILE

  A THREAT.

  ONE DAY DEATH REMOVED HIS

  CAPE FROM AROUND ME,

  I UNDERSTOOD WHAT I HAD LIVED

  THROUGH. I HAD NO REGRETS,

  WHEN THE CLOAK WAS REMOVED,

  I WAS IN A PIT OF BONES,

  A FISH WITH FROG’S

  EYES,

  CREATION IS PERFECT.

  LONE EAGLE

  IT IS SARASWATI AGAIN,

  IN THE DANCE OF SHIVA,

  THE ONLY DANCE THERE IS,

  VINCENT VAN GOGH’S CUT OFF

  EAR FLOWING THROUGH THE

  IMPRESSIONISTIC SKY, THE BEAUTIFUL

  FACE OF RIMBAUD ILLUMINATES

  THE FURY MICHELANGELO

  HAS RELEASED UPON THE

  WORLD. CHARLES LINDBERGH

  DREAMS OF THE WATERS HE HAS SEEN.

  I AM A CAMERA

  THE POET NAILED ON

  THE HARD BONE OF THIS WORLD,

  HIS SOUL DEDICATED TO SILENCE

  IS A FISH WITH FROG’S EYES,

  THE BLOOD OF A POET FLOWS

  OUT WITH HIS POEMS, BACK

  TO THE PYRAMID OF BONES

  FROM WHICH HE IS THRUST

  HIS DEATH IS A SAVING GRACE

  CREATION IS PERFECT

  JANUARY 30, 1976: MESSAGE TO MYSELF

  It is the time of illusion and reality,

  Russia deliberately creates the illusion of

  wanting peace,

  While preparing feverishly for war.

  The slogans used by Communism are based on a desire

  for peace,

  They are illusionary, for they are desiring an atmosphere

  for war.

  The U.N. wants peace, but it must be careful

  Not to compromise itself by settling for peace

  At any cost. The West cannot rest easy, for Russia is

  Anxious for war, while Russia cannot risk a unified

  Germany.

  All the contradictions of the situation heighten the Dangers of war.

  The Ancient Rain is falling. It is falling on the N.A.T.O. meetings,

  It is falling in Red Square. Will there be war or peace?

  The Ancient Rain knows, but does not say.

  I make speculations of my own, but I do not discuss them

  Because the Ancient Rain is falling.

  The Ancient Rain is falling all over America now.

  The music of the Ancient Rain is heard everywhere.

  THE ANCIENT RAIN

  At the illusion world that has come into existence of world that exists secretly, as meanwhile the humorous Nazis on television will not be as laughable, but be replaced by silent and blank TV screens. At this time, the dead nations of Europe and Asia shall cast up the corpses from the graveyards they have become. But today the Ancient Rain falls, from the far sky. It will be white like the rain that fell on the day Abraham Lincoln died. It shall be red rain like the rain that fell when George Washington abolished monarchy. It shall be blue rain like the rain that fell when John Fitzgerald Kennedy died.

  They will see the bleached skeletons that they have become. By then, it shall be too late for them. All the symbols shall return to the realm of the symbolic and reality become the meaning again. In the meantime, masks of life continue to cover the landscape. Now on the landscape of the death earth, the Luftwaffe continues to fly into Volkswagens through the asphalt skies of death.

  It shall be black rain like
the rain that fell on the day Martin Luther King died. It shall be the Ancient Rain that fell on the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. It shall be the Ancient Rain that fell when Nathan Hale died. It shall be the brown rain that fell on the day Crispus Attucks died. It shall be the Ancient Rain that fell on July Fourth, 1776, when America became alive. In America, the Ancient Rain is beginning to fall again. The Ancient Rain falls from a distant secret sky. It shall fall here on America, which alone, remains alive, on this earth of death. The Ancient Rain is supreme and is aware of all things that have ever happened. The Ancient Rain shall be brilliant yellow as it was on the day Custer died. The Ancient Rain is the source of all things, the Ancient Rain knows all secrets, the Ancient Rain illuminates America. The Ancient Rain shall kill genocide.

  The Ancient Rain shall bring death to those who love and feel only themselves. The Ancient Rain is all colors, all forms, all shapes, all sizes. The Ancient Rain is a mystery known only to itself. The Ancient Rain filled the seas. The Ancient Rain killed all the dinosaurs and left one dinosaur skeleton to remind the world that the Ancient Rain is falling again.

  The Ancient Rain splits nations that have died in the Ancient Rain, nations so that they can see the culture of the living dead they have become, the Ancient Rain is falling on America now. It shall kill D. W. Griffith and the Ku Klux Klan; Hollywood shall die in the Ancient Rain. This nation was born in the Ancient Rain, July 4, 1776. The Ancient Rain shall cause the Continental Congress to be born again.

  The Ancient Rain is perfection. The Ancient Rain cured the plague without medicine. The Ancient Rain is vindictive. The Ancient drops are volcanoes and in one moment destroyed Pompeii and brought Caesar down, and now Caesar is fallen. This Roman Empire is no more. The Ancient Rain falls silently and secretly. The Ancient Rain leaves mysteries that remain, and no man can solve. Easter Island is a lonely place.

  The Ancient Rain wets people with truth and they expose themselves to the Ancient Rain. Egypt has a silent sphinx and pyramids made of death chambers so that Egypt remembers the day the Ancient Rain drowned it forever. The mummies no longer speak, but they remember the fury of the Ancient Rain. Their tombs have been sawed in pieces and moved to the graveyard to make way for the pool of Ancient Rain that has taken their place.

  The Ancient Rain saw Washington standing at Appomattox and it fell on Lee as he laid down his sword. The Ancient Rain fell on the Confederacy and it was no more.

  The Ancient Rain is falling again. The Ancient Rain is falling on the waves of immigrants who fled their homelands to come to this home of Ancient Rain to be free of tyranny and hunger and injustice, and who now refuse to go to school with Crispus Attucks, the Ancient Rain knows they were starving in Europe. The Ancient Rain is falling. It is falling on the N.A.T.O. meetings. It is falling in Red Square. Will there be war or peace? The Ancient Rain knows, but does not say. I make speculations of my own, but I do not discuss them, because the Ancient Rain is falling.

 

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