This parade of young fire breathers
With sparking eyes and flaming wit
Full mouthed
Foul mouthed
Fully engaged
In each word and phrase that is offered
Or tossed like grenades
Into a trench
But there’s no shrapnel to frag the weakened flesh
Here the words fly like harmless toy arrows
To the bulls eyes of receptive faces
Coaxed out full of cadence and rhythm
Hesitation and trepidation
Clearly full of confident delight
Words cascade from us all
Table pounding
Finger snapping
Hoot hollering
A gospel revival of irreverent preachers
Itinerant wordsmiths of verse and song
Leading the faithful
In call and response
In this bacchanalia of verbosity
Imbibing lines with alacrity
Soused as Dylan Thomas at 2 a.m.
On the high test testimony
Sworn before the court of poetic justice
Young dragons
Speaking in tongues
Proclaiming truth in the illuminated night
David Trudel © 2012
Oh yeah–this had to get out tonight after that poetry reading! This is great! Love the tent meeting combined with crossfire and most especially the irreverent preaching. Fantastic poem.
Love!!! I do not always stop by to comment, but I read you in my inbox…<3
Thanks – nothing like a capacity crowd of (mostly) young, enthusiastic poets and poetry fans to fan a few flames!