SECTION THIRTEEN
POETRY PAGE TWO

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COLUMN NINETY-EIGHT, OCTOBER 15, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)


(Photo by Myles Aronowitz)
(Copyright - Myles Aronowitz)

SEARCHING FOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN

(Copyright "2003 Ron Whitehead)
Tappingmyphone@aol.com
www.tappingmyownphone.com
 

Presented at Starving Artist Caf?
Springfield, Kentucky
October 15, 2002  

                            

                             visited Springfield
                             flew to Louisville
                             drove Bardstown Road to
                                        St. Catharine College
                             then on to The Starving Artist Caf?  

             Welcome to Springfield, Kentucky

                     wandered       Main street       side streets
                                        lost       for hours
                                            small suitcase weighed down with
                                     heavy words
                                               The Emancipation Proclamation
                                               The Gettysburg Address
                                   Abraham Lincoln's words his works his life
                                                  biography of his boyhood
                                      he was spiritual intuitive psychic  

       'that on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves?
           shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free??  

                                     and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                       on Bardstown Road    Beech Fork    Lincoln Homestead  

       "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this
          continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
           proposition that all men are created equal."  

             Welcome to Springfield, Kentucky          Abraham Lincoln country  

                                 I walked Kentucky       into the wind
                                      dark and bloody ground
                                      jewel in the lotus
                                      omphalos
                                      heart of the world
                                      holy triangle
                                      sacred
                                      Abbey of Gethsemani   St. Catharine's   St. Joseph's
                                      Trappist monks       Dominican nuns
                                      coal mined    bituminous gold    nearly gone
                                      smokestacks    power plants    largest shovel in the world
                                      profane
                                      Native Americans   pioneers   farmers   coal miners
                                                strong women
                                      poets   writers   musicians                              

                                           in Kentucky music is mountainous

                              and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                    the greatest President of them all
                                         he saved us from ourselves  

                              and here I am in Springfield
                                    heart of Kentucky
                                    Lincoln country  

                                             who will save us now  

                              and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                    maybe Edgar Cayce can help
                                       modern day prophet 
                                          one of the great psychics of all time
                                            and from Hopkinsville, Kentucky  

                                    maybe Muhammad Ali   'the Greatest?    from Louisville
                                        maybe Muhammad Ali can point the way
                                           with his International Peace Center  

                                      "float like a butterfly
                                          sting like a bee?  

                                              oh Muhammad oh Muhammad
                                                 will you please help me cause  

                                      I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln

                                      and the rivers and creeks of Kentucky
            Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Barren, Big Sandy, Rough, Elkhorn, Green
                                       spray us with tears
                                         of Mexican immigrants
                                         who for forty days and forty nights have stood
                                         in the fields outside America's door
                                         knocking       denied entry       denied
                                        Churchill Downs       The Derby       singing
                                        "My Old Kentucky Home?       knocking
                                        on our doors       pleading       "let us come in?
                                        "let us live in your beautiful Kentucky Home?  

                                  and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln  

walking up hills   mountains   The Knobs   The Appalachians   Natural Bridge
                                                 bowing to gravity
                           leaning backward with my long hair sweeping the path
                           as I descend the wind and the descent flatten me
                           and now my muscles are green and yellow and red pain
                                   sustaining my search
                                   drink wine and strong coffee
                                           at The Starving Artist Caf?  

                                  and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln

                            I want love to have its way
                            I want us to stand united    not divided
                            One world One people     together     in peace and harmony    

                                      and searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                             I crawl through Kentucky
                   so many diamonds I find       birthed from the deep dark mines
Iroquois Cherokee Shawnee Tribes       Daniel Boone       Henry Clay     
                                                Abraham Lincoln
       Elizabeth Madox Roberts       James Still       Bill Monroe     
    Loretta Lynn       Muhammad Ali       Hunter S. Thompson       Johnny Depp
                Harry Dean Stanton       Ned Beatty       Adolf Rupp
                                    Rick Pitino        Lionel Hampton       Wendell Berry
                     John Jacob Niles       Pee Wee Reese       The Everly Brothers
      Merle Travis       Rosemary Clooney       Edgar Cayce       Robert Penn Warren
               the literary renaissance       Thomas Merton       Judy Morris
     Appalshop       Bluegrass       Bourbon       Beautiful Women
                      My Old Kentucky Home       Churchill Downs       Louisville Slugger
   The Great Outhouse Blowout      Penn's Store      Gravel Switch
               Kentucky Fried Chicken       Wildcats       Cardinals  

                                       and as I search for Abraham Lincoln
                                         I sit in The Starving Artist Caf?
                                           on a rainy October day
                                              drinking wine  

                                                why do men still drink wine
                                                 and women still water  

                                       beautiful paintings cover the walls
                                       and yes when I give readings round the world
                                       I hear 3rd world voices monks and nuns
                                                  Ernesto Cardenal       Nicanor Parra
                                                  Daniel Berrigan       Thomas Merton
                                                  Mother Teresa       Judy Morris
                                                              The Dalai Lama
                                        pierce the world's terrors chanting singing praying
                                                                                                    for love
                                                                                                    for peace  

                                     and I'm searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                       'the one who'll shake the ones unshaken
                                           the fearless one?  

                                      and searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                          in the St. Catharine College Library
           I look in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's   yes San Francisco Ferlinghetti who stood
                          At Merton's grave with me
                 I look in Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind and
                                                         Pictures of the Gone World
                             
and I read  

                        "Christ climbed down
                          from His bare tree
                          this year
                          and softly stole away into
                          some anonymous Mary's womb again
                  where in the darkest night
                          of everybody's anonymous soul
                          He awaits again
                          an unimaginable
                          and impossibly
                          Immaculate Reconception
                          the very  craziest
                          of Second Comings."  

                                    and I'm standing in The Starving Artist Caf?
                                      on Main Street in Springfield, Kentucky
                                                                     the heart of Kentucky
                                                                     the heart of the world
                                       on this rainy Tuesday October 15, 2002
                                        and the wind and the rain whisper
                                            welcome       welcome       welcome
                                                                                                        to Springfield  

               and I'm searching   searching    searching for Abe   Honest Abe
                                              searching for Abraham Lincoln
                                in Springield
                                                       welcome to Springfield, Kentucky USA
  ##

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