Beatitudes Blog

A Be'ats poem: NOLA me tangere

Submitted by John Bell on February 2, 2007 - 5:45pm.

We seven or eight from the EDS community are back from New Orleans and agree that the trip was a profound experience, though we are all still digesting the experience.

I know that Chris Wendell here at EDS asked that we share some thoughts with the Beatitudes Society.

- John Bell, member of the Episcopal Divinity School chapter of The Beatitudes Society.

NOLA me tangere

No signs hang on the people of the seventh ward, (yes, seventh),
There are almost no people - just aura.
And besides, the lepers were herded together, (as pre-Katrina),
Are now diaspora-ed.

The signs are on the houses - Xs, and I daresay there was love,
Love especially from the Cajun navy,
(They were their neighbors' keepers.)
Where are the Os? Gone with the gravy?

The signs are on the houses - but unlike other glyphs -
We want to forget their translation.
"In this corner, the counter of bodies;
In that corner, the count's revelation."

The signs do not say "touch me"
But some imagine they do.
And they touch and are touched.
And the result is as a Titian roux.

John Bell
Cambridge, MA (back from New Orleans)
January 29, 2007

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