- Malcolm M. Sedam
- Stone Gulch Poetry Memorial
The Man in Motion
Malcolm M. Sedam
(1921-1976)
The following poems are from The Man in Motion, Chronicle Press, Franklin, OH, 1971. Sedam writes in his Preface: "Let me speak for my own poetry—that it happened to me—that I lived, enjoyed or suffered every scene and that these poems are the essence of these experiences.
"Hopefully, for art's sake, the poems will give pleasure and satisfaction both to the critic and the average reader, but in a test of belief, I seek that man, any man (critic or average reader) who values flesh and blood feelings above clever word manipulation."
—Malcolm M. Sedam, Miami University, March 1971
The Quick and the Dead
As friends of the deceased
we stood outside the plot
and spoke of many things;
I said that I was a teacher
and it came out he was too,
somewhere up North, he said,
good community—good school,
no foreigners, Negroes, or Jews
in fact, he said,
no prejudice of any kind.
Saint George
He says he has a problem
and I say: Tell me about it
because he's going to tell me about it anyway
so it seems he was making love with his wife
last night or thought he was
when right in the middle of it she stopped
and remembered he hadn't put out the trash
for the trash man the next morning
so he asks: What would you have done?
and I say: Get up and put out the trash
which of course he did
but he still doesn't know why
and I reply:
You must slay the dragon
before there is peace in the land.
Faces
A funny thing happened in the war
and you'll never believe it
but there was this Jap Zero
at ten o'clock low
so I rolled up in a bank
and hauled back on the stick
too fast
and nearly lost control
and when I rolled out again
there was this other Jap
(He must have been the wingman)
flying formation with me.
We flew that way for hours
(at least four seconds)
having nothing else to do
but stare each other down,
and then as if by signal
we both turned hard away
and hauled ass out of there.
We flew that way for yours
(at least fours seconds)
and when I looked again
he was gone—
but I can still see that oriental face
right now
somewhere in Tokyo
standing in a bar
there's this guy who's saying:
a funny thing happened in the war
and you'll never believe it
but there was this American . . .
Experience
Then there was that night in Baton Rouge
Jack and I went out on the town
looking
two looking for two
And we saw these two broads at the bar
and I said
There's two Jack but yours doesn't look so good
but he was game
So we grabbed them and wined them and dined them
with champagne and steak
I remember
forty-four bucks to be exact
And when we walked out of that place
I slipped my arm around the pretty one
and whispered
let'go up
And she said
whadaya think you're gonna do
And I said
not a goddam thing
and left her flat
And Jack took the dog-face one home
And made a two-weeks stand of it
and come to think of it
I never chose a pretty girl after that.
Nostalgia
(For Lee Anne)
Call it the wish of the wind
flowing
from a dream of dawn
through the never-to-be forgotten
spring of our years
running
swiftly as a lifetime
flying
Slim Indian princess wedded in motion
dark hair streaming
sunlight and freedom
floating on a cadence song
drifting shadow-down
into the distance
my daughter riding bareback
on a windy April afternoon.
( For Allen Ginsberg, et al.)
Through this state and on to Kansas
more black than May’s tornadoes
showering a debris of art —
I saw you coming long before you came
in paths of twisted fear and hate
and dread, uprooted, despising all judgment
which is not to say
that the bourgeois should not be judged
but by whom and by what,
Junkies, queers, and rot
who sit on their haunches and howl
that the race should be free for pot
and horney honesty?
Which I would buy
if a crisis were ever solved
in grossness and minor resolve
but for whom and for what?
I protest your protest
it’s hairy irrelevancy
I, who am more anxious than you
more plaintive than you
more confused than you
having more at stake
an investment in humanity.
Joseph
Some things were never explained
even to me, and of course
they would tell it his way
but I believed in her
because I chose to believe
and you may be sure of this:
A man's biological role is small
but a god's can be no more
that it was I who was always there
to feed him, to clothe him
to teach him and nurture his growth—
discount those foolish rumors
that bred on holy seed
for truly I say unto you:
I was the father of Christ.
To Moses at Sinai
At least part of your message is clear,
thou shalt not kill
except in certain seasons
and thou shalt not commit adultery
except in certain regions
and thou shalt not lie
except on incredible things
like carrying five tons of tablet stones
down mountains.
Indian Country
Can it be enough to wake the morning
to find in a land above all others
the generosity of spring
a summer's desire
the sky like a psalm unfolding a season for lovers?
Stay, do not be afraid
walking hand in hand with me
through the gentle wilderness
the glorious heart of it
I know this country better than I know myself
better
let me share it with you
this immortal scene—
how can you close your eyes?
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