Day 23 - "under the spell"

Happy Monday everyone! That most wonderful of weekdays.

Luckily I have been able to procure this day off on a weekly basis through my job so I don't suffer the ill effects of it's 'new week' influence. But I have a new poem for all of you today, so that should cheer you up, right?

I thought so.

By the way, before I get into the poem, I know it's been a while since I've posted but, unfortunately, I still don't have a reliable internet connection and my dedication to keeping my poetry coming has been waning lately because of a lot of time being set aside for working on my business as well as general mayhem in terms of my weekly schedule - nothing seems to be set in stone anymore and as much as I like to parcel my week out and have some private time for writing, those plans have been dashed to pieces these past few months for one reason or another.

But I'm back now, and my poem for today is one that I wrote a while ago after seeing a production of a musical theater piece called "Godspell" that I had particularly strong feelings about afterwards. Knowing me to be a professed Christian, many of my friends asked me about it and what I thought of it and many of them, before even speaking to me, believed that I must have instantly loved it and had to be a fan. In fact, it was quite the opposite reaction for me. It's one thing to portray a religious faith on stage - it's quite another thing to turn it into a happy, dancing charade with musical numbers and mass consumer appeal. Even my significant other at the time was extremely disappointed to find that, in private, the idea that this play even existed evoked such a disgusted response from me.

It was and is only my personal opinion, and I know not everyone shares my sentiments on the piece itself, but regardless of the backstory involved with this poem it provoked this work in me. I hope you all enjoy it, and if you've felt the same way in a similarly given situation before, perhaps it will reach out to you in particular and convey that sense of being the only one in the audience who chose not to stand up for a certain ovation.


"under the spell"


One thought it a fine entertainment to see
Until one had gleaned of its dreadful attempt
At the cruel and senseless mimicry
Of a thing that gave half of its soul to prevent

The damnation of ages upon ages of man -
Who were all the more pitiless, the more that they cheered -
And then bore all the whips and the lash of their hand
For the sake that they all might be free and would hear

Of the bold sacrifice and the promise divine
But one saw all this drowned in a moment by song
And a dance and a joke and a bright glowing sign

And for that lonely one, there was nowhere to hide
Sitting in the front row with a grand company
Watching doom silhouette that most bold mimicry



- Josh Clarke