{"id":1921,"date":"2015-09-24T12:55:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T17:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2015-09-24T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T17:55:23","slug":"poem-are-you-a-friend-of-dorothy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/24\/poem-are-you-a-friend-of-dorothy\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Are You A Friend of Dorothy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a friend of Dorothy Day<\/strong>
\nI wood ax<\/strong>
\nMore than won quest in<\/strong>
\nA bout<\/strong>
\nHer call<\/strong>
\nAs a tenet in passable saint hood<\/strong>
\nAs if a priest to nun<\/strong>
\nOr mirror lay person<\/strong>
\nAborting gaiety<\/strong>
\nAs an infallible sign of God’s presents<\/strong>
\nKneaded, sow kneaded<\/strong>
\nAs abandon plays on<\/strong>
\nThe Catholic work her<\/strong>
\nInn to their starting lyin’ up<\/strong>
\nWith little roam for others<\/strong>
\nAs prize winning dogmas<\/strong>
\nFor sake others<\/strong>
\nWorshiping sons of bitches<\/strong>
\nOf average Joes and Mary not<\/strong>
\nEngendering grace<\/strong>
\nThrew con genital souls<\/strong>
\nFull of wholes<\/strong>
\nAs if litter<\/strong>
\nMiss carrion <\/strong>
\nNever coming to term<\/strong>
\nWithout a hitch<\/strong>
\nOnly finding one self<\/strong>
\nOne to an other<\/strong>
\nSide by side<\/strong>
\nFitting awe<\/strong>
\nFor lives filled with scant do<\/strong>
\nAn offering more than<\/strong>
\nSum well<\/strong>
\nPublished comic marvel<\/strong>
\nAs if conceivable in a man’s world<\/strong>
\nA loan<\/strong>
\nTo the wrest of us<\/strong>
\nShe could never look down to prey <\/strong>
\nAnd yet sow much<\/strong>
\nHeaven unearth<\/strong>
\nHer whole life sew true<\/strong>
\nAnd in those untolled smiles spanning eternity<\/strong>
\nShe most lovingly waives<\/strong>
\nIt just<\/strong>
\nSaint so<\/strong>
\nWhat<\/strong>
\nEver you due<\/strong>
\nDon’t save<\/strong>
\nAwe of the gory<\/strong>
\nFore God<\/strong>
\nAs will only<\/strong>
\nIn yore wildest dreams<\/strong>
\nHand it<\/strong>
\nBack to you<\/strong>
\nWith teeming interest<\/strong>
\nAs got yours<\/strong>
\nAnd every body ails<\/strong><\/p>\n

This poem was inspired by the occasion of Pope Franky coming to America and highlighting the possibility of Dorothy Day becoming a saint.\u00a0 This is deeply ironic, since Dorothy Day explicitly did not want to be written off as a saint, but cast her lot with the poor and dispossessed of the world.\u00a0 As a former atheist who lost the earthly love of her life by converting to Catholicism, which he rejected holy, she was familiar with heartache.\u00a0 As a women who had an abortion, I find her consideration for sainthood more intriguing.\u00a0 Her founding role in the Catholic Worker movement<\/a> challenged and vexed\u00a0religious folks — and people of faith as well.\u00a0 Her living with the poor and downtrodden is a model of solidarity.\u00a0 This poem posits questions of elite status, which she resoundingly rejected, as holy separate from her understanding of Jesus, the spirit of God incarnate.\u00a0 The title of the poem — Are You A Friend of Dorothy<\/a>? — is both a question and a reference to the cultural necessity of gay folks needing code words and phrases to navigate in a culture where they are rejected.\u00a0 Dorothy Day, about as keenly aware of class as possible sought to transcend it.\u00a0 She was an itinerant peace-monger, ever-seeking creating those sacred spaces where one side fits all. She knew that salvation was not far off, but right in front of us, in awe its gory details.\u00a0 She knew what second-class citizenship was, not simply by being a woman in a man’s world or a man’s church, but by daring to embrace the poverty of more than one class and bring a bout wealth, and the privilege to serve.\u00a0 Her rightness with God is dishonored by trying to capture that spirit in the form of graven images, mere token substitutes for her authentically beautiful and unique, but totally accessible life.\u00a0 I don’t suspect that Dorothy would approve of a title of sainthood.\u00a0 I do suspect that she would want us to walk with her.\u00a0 And in this case, that would be walking among the dead and the living, and everywhere in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a friend of Dorothy Day I wood ax More than won quest in A bout Her call As a tenet in passable saint hood As if a priest to nun Or mirror lay person Aborting gaiety As an infallible … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,174,57,9,15],"tags":[140,563,355,294,537,121,384,606,516,312,661,538,393,108,432,644,65,263,431,506,202,579,562,24,359,273,594,658,94,107,424,112,491,513,544,31,128,279,531,406,111,287,380,383],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay","category-news","category-peace","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-abortion","tag-america","tag-atheist","tag-awe","tag-beautiful","tag-catholic","tag-church","tag-citizenship","tag-culture","tag-dogma","tag-dorothy-day","tag-dream","tag-dreams","tag-elite","tag-faith","tag-gender","tag-god","tag-grace","tag-heart","tag-heaven","tag-holy","tag-image","tag-ironic","tag-jesus","tag-life","tag-love","tag-play","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poor","tag-possibility","tag-poverty","tag-present","tag-privilege","tag-questions","tag-religious","tag-sacred","tag-solidarity","tag-soul","tag-status","tag-wealth","tag-women","tag-work","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Are You A Friend of Dorothy? 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