@3The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?@1 Amos 3.8 this is what Yahveh Adonai showed me: a basket of summer fruit asked me: Amos what is this? I said: a summer basket he said: a summary for Israel my people never will I let it pass but they will squawk their palace songs that day I say it Yahveh Adonai there will be bodies everywhere & silence listen: you who such life from the poor man drive him from his work you say: when will the new moon pass so we can sell grain? when will the sabbath end so we can show our wheat? you weigh their baskets light weigh your coins heavy you cheaters with lying scales you buy the poor for money paupers for a pair of shoes sell chaff for grain God swears it by the pride of Jacob: will I always be forgetting? will the earth shake some day -- all alive on her lament? she'll rise up like a river wholly flooding drowning like the Nile that day the word of Yahveh Adonai says: I will make the sun turn back at noon earth will grow dark in daylight will turn your feasts to mourning songs to howls wrap everybody's laps in sackcloth everybody's head be shaved be bald will make it like grieving for an only child a bitter day to end it days are coming -- says the word of Yahveh Adonai -- a famine in the land will be no hungering for bread or water but for Yahveh's words Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MOZART'S REQUIEM by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS TO MICHAL: SONNETS AFTER MARRIAGE: 8. AFTER RONSARD by CHARLES WILLIAMS FREQUENTLY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS POOR CHILD by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES TO BETTINE; THE CHILD-FRIEND OF GOETHE by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING AN AMULET by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |