THE WORD

OUT OF THE TOMB

The voice that is quiet, the life that lives in timidity, the song that sings only within, the story that has never been told. Comes the open microphone. Comes the power of resurrection.

This is the month of something new, this is the time for the poem to rise up, for the song to find its power, for the story to write itself on subway walls, for all things to traverse the beating heart of our humanity – the one single thing all of creation has in common.

Behind the microphone one finds courage, confidence, creativity; there the light shines, dimly at first but brighter and brighter the longer we stand.

So take the microphone, see if you can find the real you at last. Come in from the shadows, come out from under the thumb; throw off the common narrative, take shelter from the storm. Rise up out of the tomb. That’s a good start!

In this month of April open microphone events continue at The MAD Café in Collingwood (this Thursday 4 April), at the Dangerous Kitchen in Takaka and at the Mussel Inn. Details on following pages.

Acid on the Microphone this month features an open mic session that will run from 7.30 pm until the end of the night. And this coming Wednesday at The Dangerous Kitchen the second of The Dangerous Jam is going to hit the floor after The Dangerous Microphone open mic session. Flip the following pages for all the details.

Love to see you performing and supporting at one of these events.

Peace
Mark Raffills
Golden Bay Live Poets Society

Resurrection

Sixteen soldiers, sixteen steel blades of earthquake and lightning, the white stone angel descends on the tomb and the world explodes into a thousand pieces of doubt and belief.

Disbelief is savaged by every unseeing eye, it runs like a wild dog tearing at the dress of this deceiving narrative, it is bought by those same coins of betrayal and hand washing.

Who lives among the dead but death itself, sixteen derelict soldiers; who looks for the living among the dead and finds no one, hope takes the high road of the long way out of there.

The long lash of anger echoes into the everyday, love cuts a red line across the woman’s heart, faces down the man’s fear and reaches to the still waters of Galilee where all things are found.

Mark Raffills