Riding On An Escalator Poem by gershon hepner

All words that are truly dear
may be repeated without tedium,
making messages more clear,
for the message is the medium
that helps you soar like pleasure wings
that raise the fiddler to the roof,
transcending a spacetime that sings
with spirit whose percentage proof
disproves reality that we
hold sacred, helping us transcend
the categories in which they’re placed.
The meaning justifies the end,
and when repeated, we can taste
the message that’s contained within
the words we cherish, as unchaste
as fiddlers on a violin,
attracted to the lovely bride
receiving for the groom her ring.
Such images do not deride
for they redouble words I sing,
iconically recurring like
the escalators in a mall
which you might ride upon a bike
were you inspired as Chagall.

Inspired by a poem by Kay Ryan in “Flamingo Watching”:

EVERY PAINTING BY CHAGALL

Every twined groom and bride,
every air fish, smudged Russian,
red horse, yellow chicken, assumes
its position not actually beside
but in some friendly distribution
with a predictable companion.
Every canvas insists on a
similar looseness, each neck
put to at least two uses. And wings
from some bottomless wing source.
They are pleasure wings of course
since any horse or violinist
may mount the blue
simply for wanting to.
(In freedom, dear things
Repeat without tedium.)



12/17/08