The Key to the Kingdom Poem by Philip Gross
The Key to the Kingdom
It's not exile, homes and families behind
us, where we meet. It happens anywhere,
now: a stateless
state of no name, quietly seceding
from the crumbling empires round us,
without stamps or Eurovision entries.
No-one does it with a rough guide in a week.
You inhabit it
or nothing. Like this: in a pavement cafe
you blink and you seem to surprise them,
the crowd, all its separate faces at once,
coming out of solution like crystals,
like a rush of starlings
or the breeze that lifts the canvas awning
now and dents your cappuccino froth
with a crisp little sound. And that's it:
between breaths, just between you and me
as if; yes,
QED. You are received. This is
the freedom of the city, and the key
to the kingdom, and its borders ripple
outwards like a frill of breaking wave
onto flat sand,
a wavering line already fading leaving
spume-flecks high and dry,
a prickling on your palm; you're five
years old, looking up at the whole sea,
unsure:
will you laugh or cry?
the crowd, all its separate faces at once, coming out of solution like crystals, , , , yeah, that is right. There is no dearth of ideas people share in such situations. Nice drop. Congrats.
Like a frill of breaking waves. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.
You are received. This is the freedom of the city, and the key to the kingdom.......... Congrats for being chosen.....
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I would like to translate this poem
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5/2/2024 7:57:46 PM # 1.0.0.1119
wow! gross gets as close as anyone can, i think, to describing something that is hard to describe, transient but transforming. i think it's a moment like i try to describe in my haiku driving north when the sun rises over the mountains. where is home really? gross describes it- where your are received. by whom? i know it is by God. just as we are- sins and all, faults and all- God loves us because love is what God is and does. gross is describing, it seems to me, a moment of clarity when we see this, when we know this. but it's only a moment- but its borders ripple outwards- into the way we see, into our perspective on life- but it's already fading. but all it takes is a moment! will you laugh or cry? both. perhaps both at the same time- for the joy of this realization. i sobbed. such a moment unmoors us but is wonderful. we know a secret now. we have a knowing that is beneath- a foundation- and that lasts after the passing show of this world. glen kappy