Saturday, April 22, 2006

Lion's Tooth


Photo: A Dandelion - Spring Has Arrived In Jerome, Illinois - 2006



Lion's Tooth
-JeromeProphet-

I'm out of time.
I sit and stare.
I've prayed for more.

But you won't dare.

For a future.
For a past.
Into which I'd cast.

I'm out of rhyme.
My wit is bare.
I plead for mercy.

But you don't care.

For a love.
For a fate.
Which I could make.

I'm out of line.
My trip is snared.
I've begged for more.

But you're unaware.

Of a life.
Of a state.
That awaits.

You won't dare.
You don't care.
You're unaware.

Are you there?

Friday, April 21, 2006

Spring Fever 2006 Report


Photo: Jerome, Illinois - 2006 Spring Floral Display


Redeem me oh Spring! Redeem me!

Is Spring only as good as it seems because of Winter?

Probably.

Yet, there is no time of year in which trees blossom, and flowers adorn our yards like they do during Spring. The thick perfume scent which fills the air, the blue sky, and growing warmth all seem to rejuvinate my soul.

I'm sure it has the same effect on most people.

I always come down with a bit of Spring Fever. I yearn to be somewhere else, but I'm not quite sure where. Just closer to the sun perhaps. Closer to the warmth, and to the light.

But it's coming! Yes, it's coming!

Here Comes The Sun
- The Beatles -

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

The Beatle's Song Lyrics In Apple Green (above) are under copyright. I reproduced them here for artistic purposes only as they capture perfectly what many of us feel around this time of year.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

The Effect - Part II - The Way To Go


Photo: Stanford Overpass - Springfield, Illinois - Looking West Toward Jerome

At least for a time I felt like I knew just what I should do. There was however one important obstacle to my plan. I had measured out exactly how many steps to take, how long it would take me to execute each step. Knowing the cost of failure I had planned carefully. I had however failed to take into account one minor detail - one little detail which would very likely cause me to lose my life.

As the effect slowly crept across the Village of Jerome I could hear the screams - the blood curdling screams of those under its grip. The sound of gunfire, cars revving up, tires screeching, cars crashing, and the howling of a fierce wind.

All hell was breaking loose just blocks away. Those poor souls had no way of knowing where to go, or what to do. They were running blindly in panic for their cars, or scampering to their basements to hide, not knowing that they had only moments to live.

But I had listened to the old woman's stories when no one else would. I had listened to her, and believed. She had grown up in Jerome before it was Jerome, when Jerome was just farm fields. Her parents farmed the land, and her grandparents before them. She had first heard the stories she had shared with me when she was just a child. Stories which were handed down quietly, which many denied had any truth to them, but stories which never seemed to disappear - not entirely.

The stories were ancient. They had in fact predated the first log cabins in Sangamo. They were told even before the first french traders made their way here.

It was in the details of the mad ramblings of a woman who had been found dead only one night before that I was venturing out into the raging insanity that was now Jerome, Illinois to seek refuge in the only place refuge could be found.

It was a small unassuming house. So small in fact that many made jokes about it, and questioned why such a small house rested within such a large field surrounded by so many trees. Few had ever seen its owner, and over the years many stories sprang up that the small house was haunted.

To be continued..,

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Bush's Nightmare

........................Bush's Nightmare
...................................- Jerome Prophet -

Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace
Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace Peace


Sunday, April 16, 2006

Winter Sunshine Yields To Spring


Photo: First Christian Church @ Sunset - Springfield, Illinois 03.21.06


Winter Sunshine
- Jerome Prophet -

I see you coming.
From miles around.
You're radiance.
You're Love.
Astound.

Glide Glide Glide.
Upon this little frown.
Ride Ride Ride.
Lift up this down.

I saw you coming.
From miles around.
Your radiance.
Your Love.
Abound.

You're way up high.
I'm way down low.
Show me your pace.
The way to go.

Glide Glide Glide.
Down upon me.
Ride Ride Ride.
You're up on me.

I saw your love.
You saw mine.
Never leave.
Sunshine.

Eostre Day 2006


Photo: First United Methodist Church - 501 East Capitol, Springfield, Illinois

I was raised as a christian in a predominantly christian society in the last half of the twentieth century. I found that once I was mature enough to question all that I had been taught about my christian faith that holding onto that faith wasn't simply a matter of casting out unholy thoughts.

I knew most of my friends really didn't care one way or another about their faith to question it, but I felt doubts creeping in from about the age of twelve.



Photo: First United Methodist Church - 501 East Capitol, Springfield, Illinois

At about the age of twelve the average human brain has developed enough so as to allow for more complex, and abstract thought formation. At this age children who believe their parents are beyond reproach begin to question them, and their authority. They also begin to question other aspects of their lives - including their faith.

For me it meant sneaking out of church service, and hanging out on the front steps of the church with other lost boys - talking about anything, and everything, but not about God.

Jesus at about this age most likely started to question his beliefs, and started hanging out in those sections of the nearby temples in which average believers were allowed.

The priests of our church would joke with us boys a bit, and then remind us that service was starting soon. He'd then walk inside to begin the church service. I suspect he believed that it was just a phase, and that one day we'd realize the importance of attending church service each, and every Sunday.



Photo: First United Methodist Church - 501 East Capitol, Springfield, Illinois

I often wonder if Jesus had been raised in a time of democratice ideology, scientific discovery, and material progress, if he would have kept questioning his faith for as long as I have. Would Jesus have affirmed his faith? Jesus is often seen as a revolutionary, but he also accepted his faith, and it is here that I suspect that Jesus would have had a problem with our modern secular society - and perhaps me.

Studies show that Baby Boomers drifted away from the church, and many have returned in recent years as they near their inevitable appointment with death. Yet, how many who strayed, and came back, returned in affirmation of their faith? I suspect most returning have done so for a variety of reasons including those not related to Christianity itself. Mother church is a comfort in many ways beyond dogma.

I myself am still searching, and like a voyager out to sea my spiritual side is often thrown into stormy passages of doubt. Yet I am not drifting, but sailing for ports which I have chosen. I assume both the responsibility, and the spoils provided only to those who embrace free thought, and the doubt it allows.

Some view doubt as a temptation offered by the devil to persuade we mortals to join him against God, but I don't accept that argument, and never have. Perhaps that is why I found myself on those steps outside the church - listening to the voices raised in praise - but from the outside.

Still, despite my doubts, I believe that the story of Jesus' mortal sacrafice warns perfectly of the ugliness, and brutality of our human nature. That the story speaks truly of our inherent willingness to dominate, plunder, subjugate, enslave, rape, and kill those unable to defend themselves from our baser instincts.

The Christian holy week speaks to this modern secular age of the futility of living a life without moral limits, without justice, and without reason as loudly now as it ever has - of this I have no doubt. It's a lesson the whole world can learn from no matter what faith, or doubts one may subscribe to.

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