SONGS FOR AN EARTH FAMILY

Poems of the Free School Community, volume 2

 

..

 

Here's one anong the many speaking poems in this collection:

The Magic Hat

by Chris Mercogliano

 

It began with a boy, (as it so often does),

Bespectacled, wise, soft-hearted and nine;

And a lone summer cap (one size fits all).

Of all the boys there, it caught his eye first...

 

Under the cap I had laid a brief note,

Hand-scribbled words claiming great promise:

This is NO ordinary hat; instead,

Lifelong happiness is its gift to the wearer.

 

The auctioneer held the hat high while he read:

Booger Hollow, Arkansas, population seven ---

(a most lucky number) Countin one coon dog.

"...Who'll bid five dollars for this here hat?"

 

A pudgy young hand shot straight up - it was Felix!

He'd watched me write that tantalizing note -

So this was no Frosty the Snowman routine;

No sleight of hand, storybook magic found here.

 

"...Five dollars bid, five dollars, I'm lookin for six...

I've got six dollars bid, now how about seven?

Now seven, seven dollars, seven dollars, do I hear eight?"

Felix was far from the only believer.

 

(Magic makes believers, believers make magic.)

"Eight dollars bid, eight dollars, do I hear nine?"

...This hat is guaranteed to change your life.

"Nine dollars bid, nine dollars, I'm lookin for ten."

 

It was Felix again - he'd understood my refusal

When he had asked for the secret.

The story of this hat is just for the winner.

"Ten dollars bid, ten dollars, who'll bid eleven?"

 

"I've got eleven dollars bid, now twelve, now thirteen..."

The bidding was fierce - for a tourist trap trinket?

Magic dares not appear in a careful man's ledger,

But forever lives on in free children's hearts.

 

"Fourteen dollars bid, I have fourteen, do I hear fifteen?"

No doubting Thomas, he just left his hand up.

(Felix means happy, so why want the trick hat?)

It was a question of when and not why.

 

It was simply a matter of time now;

For Felix surely had come for the hat.

"Fifteen dollars, fifteen, fifteen, who'll bid sixteen dollars?

I've got sixteen dollars bid, sixteen, how 'bout seventeen?"

 

(Sooner or later the others would realize.)

"I have a bid of eighteen dollars, eighteen, eighteen dollars...

Sold to the boy up front with the glasses."

(How had I known to bring him that hat?)

 

He paid his dues quick and came straight for my story.

I explained how the hat helped me through

And beyond my own cruel booger-man hollow;

Past cowardly demons 'till I reached my true self.

 

He tried on the hat and touched the bill softly.

"I've just got one question," he said, "but it's personal;

And so it's o.k. if you don't want to answer...

Can I ask what you paid for the hat?"

 

"Sure," I replied, "Just four dollars," and he smiled his eyes;

For he knew a real deal when he saw one.

Finally, Felix stood quite straight and quite tall,

And walked out into the dark Ozark night.

 

 Blown by Winter Winds

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

Aditya (Venukrishnan):

Poem

Cat

Strange

Snowflake

End of the World

Stormy Night

The Shepherd

 

Allison (Ives):

Moonlight

All Cultures

Our Mother Earth

 

Alyssa (Zienkowicz):

Truth

The Moon

 

Betsy (Mercogliano):

Ellen's Morning Glory

Sticky Buns

Water Relief

Wet Wave Goodbye

Arlington Cemetery

The Visit

Juice-Bearers

Water Blossom

Helene

Live In, Live Out

Heated Waters of Life

 

Charlene Therrien:

All Night

Breathing

As a Woman

Sadness

Thirteenth

His

Ten Years

Initiation

Life tracks

 

Chris (Mercogliano):

The Magic Hat

Dug Hollow Daydream

Nantucket Time

Cemetery

Gently Down the Stream

Halloween

I

Christmas '93

Small Miracles

Storm Coming

The Reverend

How Do I Hear God Calling?

Self-Portrait

Emergence

Questions

First Frost

 

Connie (Frisbee-Houde):

Alyssa

Jesus Within

Duality

 

David (Boadella):

Revival

Pietà

 

Debby (Gillette):

My Heart

 

Elisha (Mittleman):

I Wish

Poem

Sleeping Tonight

Older One

Box Full of Love

 

Ellen (Becker):

A Telephone Call From my Mother

She

The Space

I Married a Jewish Man

 

Eve (Minehan):

Poem

My Friend

Mysterious Ways

Tears

 

Frank (Houde):

Cape House

More Cape House

Soldier, Warrior

 

Free School Community:

 

(Joint Free School retreat poems)

Accepting Cycles

Openings

Flying Inside

Listen!

Second Coming

Choosing the Moon

Inner Lightning

A Circle of September Dandelions

 

Gabrielle (Becker):

Poem

The Superintendent

Appaloosa

Joy is Coming

Cherry Pie

Love

Exist

Everyone Can Feel Pain

Cherry Tree

Beauty Held

Winter Bed

 

Heather (Merle):

Everything That Fell

 

Judith (Rubinstein):

Mother Theresa Speaks

 

Larry (Becker):

The Halls

How Is It

Snow Cave

His Wife Had Died

 

Libby (Carivan):

Sonnet

 

Lily (Mercogliano):

My Dream

Walking Up the Street At Sunrise

The Mouse Who Ate All the Cheese

My Dream (2)

 

Madeline (Leue):

Where Are Witches?

Snow Between the Toes

 

Mary (Leue):

To My Psychiatrist

Robert

Eurydice

Whiteout

Rodden Under Merry Hill

The Journey

The Meeting

Girl Child

Circles, Squares

England, 1995

 

Missy (Marceau):

Fumes

 

Monique (Roberts):

The Moon

A Poem

Poem

 

Nancy (Mittleman):

The Brothers

New Year Blessings

My Love, My Blessing

Kaylana

 

Richard (Mason):

Untitled

Southern Flower

Harlequin on the Finality of Unforgiveness

We Were Born of the Pond Bottom

 

Paul (Merle):

A Stranger in This Land

 

Ted (Becker):

Fire, Water, Air, Earth

The Moon and the Grass and the Stream

and the Fish and the Forest

We're All Related

The Tiger Jumps

And Sometimes

Stone

Fun

Two Humbugs

Bed

Hate

Wind

Untitled

 

See also The World's Gonna End at Loonchtime, Poems of the Free School Community, volume 1