THE SPIRIT
In Haiti this week
there is weeping and wailing
weeping and wailing
and dancing in the street
Dancing in the street?
Not something you’d
expect to see
so soon after disaster
New Orleans maybe
if it wasn’t for all
that water
Tag Archives: Hurricane Katrina
NEW ORLEANS 2005
NEW ORLEANS 2005
Nobody wants to leave Shangri La
When the Chinese invaded Tibet
they sent the Dalai Lama
and a ream of Rimpoches
rolling down from the
High Himalayas
and out across the world
And the world is better for it
Nobody wants to leave the city
where all the rivers lead
From the Missouri Breaks in Montana
through Minneapolis and Memphis
the gold and good earth
of America’s heart
all heads for the delta
and gathers in Basin Street
and sings
Hurricane Katrina reversed the flow
pushed it back up the river
and across the land
and America may be the better for it
MARX AND GOD IN NEW ORLEANS
MARX AND GOD IN NEW ORLEANS
The people of New Orleans are still singing
If religion is indeed the opiate of the people
seldom was it more needed and more used
than last September down in New Orleans
And yet strangely and much I suspect
to the relief of the administration
the God of the people of New Orleans
is not a God of revenge
The God of the people of New Orleans
is a God of mysterious intent
not blamed for those who die
but praised by those who live
Theirs is the God that rocks you to sleep
in the belly of the slave ship
surrounded by water
The God that rocks you to sleep
in the hold of the Superdome
surrounded by water