The 24th of June is the Nativity of Saint John. Only he and the Virgin Mary, aside from Jesus, have Solemn Nativities. This alone testifies to his important in the Churches from the very beginning. Praise to the saint who was forerunner and twin to the Lord, who brought to us the sacred rite of baptism which replaced blood and circumcision. Saint Paul later attempted to eclipse him saying that he brought baptism of the Spirit, but others said they gave the baptism of John and those who still remember John remember this is the only baptism there ever was, for John the Baptist did indeed baptize with water and the Spirit. It was under his ministrations that Jesus himself was baptized. Still words fail where poetry, the foundation of all language, does not.
on the birth of wild things
Today in the sauce thick heat you gave birth,
though
you were ancient past bearing, a
withered land
with no water, all rocks and stones
and you were cousin of the Virgin
twice virgined over, three times as old
you brought into this earth the prophet
all covered in moss
all wild eyed and full of locust
and honey
and his lungs screamed prepare the way
and his foot thumped out to herald
resurrection
and out of the protection of that
which once was
barren, all covered in vines and
tendrils he came
the Greenest of Men, who carried
his own head in his hands
and in his mouth, the sword of
his own destruction
and when you see him at the Jordan
then he is our destruction
when you see him calling you into
the water
then he is your induction to the
little death
the fire death and the water death
and the death of all that held you
and when he comes, calling,
behold the Lamb
then you know he is the Wild Thing
and you are the Wild Thing
and what he brings in his camel
hair coat
is the end of all stale safety
ii.
in the place where noes turn into yeses
i love you
in the place where they become the caresses
of miracle
i love you
in the hill country--get thee up
where he is born--with a high voice
kicking and screaming
proclaiming, dreaming
where was born that ancient thing
where from the mother whirlwind is
born the woodland King,
the desert king
the wooded king
this is the way he comes to world
after whirring away in a chariot of flame
and in the fire of this wholly joyous
desire
i declare
i love you
at the river jordan
where he pours
new saving for a newer lord
i love you wildly
i love you with his roaring voice
and his crazy fire
i adore you
i implore you
i... am in awe of you
i love you
strophe
deep inside i know you will always return to me...
in the blankets and sheets between
night and morning
where timelessness floats we stripped
and your body, with all its black hairs
was on top of me and beside me and all
over
how do you know?
and what can you say?
the sweetest release is the admission of love
iii
from the wall the mossy head of John the Baptist
half pan and three fourths devil leers down at me and
says, you ought to know by now there is no safety in love
i was born when Herod chopped off my head
that was the death of a wild thing
and with tendrils like rings and roots like
claws my body went down and down, twisting through the earth
and i picked my head up and laughed
you better laugh too
when Salome's axe comes for you
and this is the kiss of wild things
a fire on your face
and this is the love of wild things
a burning embrace
and this is the baptism of wild things
wind and fire
and this is the birth of wild things
and you are the wild thing whenever you let
my arms, like corded wood seize you
and dunk you and dunk you
until drunk with the jordan you gasp and reel
and start over again, laughing with beginning
this is repentance
this is all it ever was
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