Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A VISION OF THE VOICE OF YAHVEH, by AMOS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A VISION OF THE VOICE OF YAHVEH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This is what yahveh adonai
Alternate Author Name(s): Amos The Prophet
Subject(s): Jews; Mysticism - Judaism; Judaism


The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?
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




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