Jim Burke – Believer’s Tale

Burke LE P&W 4 Nov-Dec 2024

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four November-December 2024

Believer’s Tale, poems by Jim Burke.


Believer’s Tale

When I was beaten
For being stupid

I was stupid

When I was beaten
For being ignorant

I was ignorant

When I was beaten
For being useless

I was useless

When I was penitent
For being a sinner

I was a sinner

And they held
Their holy vows

As I was beaten—


Chat

Reason says:
Time changes everything.
Road, ditch, yard,
Joe the dairyman’s
whistling smile
of black curls,
his Gypsy Rover song.
Heart says:
It’s hard to endure what
lies beneath the clouds.

Reason says:
Time pushes on,
skirts Madigan’s place,
old Jack Grady’s and flits upon
a bridge, crosses to the opposite
side gobbling all the unfamiliar
stretch of river.
Heart says:
I hear Joe nowhere
passing by.


© Jim Burke

Jim Burke, is co-founder with John Liddy of The Stony Thursday Book. His haiku feature in ‘Between the Leaves’ Arlen House (2016). ‘Quartet’ with Mary Scheurer, Peter Wise and Carolyn Zukowski (2019) ‘Montage’ Literary Bohemian Press (2021) Slipstreaming in the West of Ireland, poems with John Liddy, Revival Press (2024).

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