Poem: "Urban Shamans"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the January 4, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from aldersprig.  It was sponsored out of general funds based on a recent poll.

Urban Shamans

These are not the shamans of old.
They're hip.  They're with it.
It's their job to keep the urban jungle green and gray
and growing.

In New York

Comments

[pocketnaomi]

I knew that particular New York shaman. He went to my high school, his graffiti tag was Sane, and he died in a fall from a homemade scaffold, trying to paint the inside of the seawall that kept the East River from flooding its banks.

O_O

[ysabetwordsmith]

Wow. I knew I was getting specific images for them, but it didn't occur to me that I might have been picking up images from this reality. Thank you very much for sharing.

Re: O_O

[pocketnaomi]

Sane was very much a part of this reality; he was well known in New York and I was privileged to know him personally a very little, when we were both in school. One weekend we came to school Monday morning to find that he had covered the entire city-block-sized courtyard wall of the school with an enormous, beautiful, multicolor dragon. Of course the school, with vastly more bureaucracy than common sense, saw it as defacement and painted over it within two days while delivering stern warnings to the entire student body (they knew Sane was one of us, but not which one, and we sure weren't telling). I wish I'd thought to get a photo of it while it was still there, but it was transient; by Thursday the wall was blank again. Only our memories remained, but those are vivid to this day

Re: O_O

[ysabetwordsmith]

Fascinating.

Some people stick around after death, and are capable of making their presence known. Maybe he just wanted to remind folks that he's still keeping an eye on the city, and thought that nabbing a verse in the poem would be a good way to do that.

[aldersprig]

I still love this one, and am glad it was chosen by the poll!

[siege]

I'm glad of it as well. I'd count myself in those ranks, if I were dedicated to a city.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

One of the things I find interesting about modern life is that there are now urban, rural, and wilderness shamans. The basic purpose is the same, but the approaches and the settings are much more diverse.

[pocketnaomi]

The great urban mayors, I've noticed, seldom do well at other political jobs if they advance to them. Most don't try. They're not just good politicians or good administrators, they're wired to their city, so that they can tell from downtown when a subway has gone off the tracks up north before anybody tells them. I think they're among their city's shamans, and they are usually too tied to the city they worship to fare well in a broader role. But I've lived in several cities which were lucky enough to have them, and know to cherish them while they govern the place they truly belong to.

Urban? Rural? Wilderness? A people?

[pingback_bot]

User siege referenced to your post from Urban? Rural? Wilderness? A people? saying: [...] posted a poem titled "Urban Shamans [...]

[eseme]

Add me to the ranks of happy people that this was published.

I voted for it, certainly!

It's great, and very inspiring for someone who plays RPGs in urban settings. Those are great images.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yes, I can see how this would be inspiring for urban fantasy campaigns.

[kelkyag]

This sketchfest image by Lorna reminded me of this poem. :)

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I agree! Thanks everso for sharing that link.

Re: Yes...

[haunted_blood]

Feel free to use the sketch with the poem how you wish! I am contemplating doing the full painting, but no time line on it.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I appreciate that. If I had a printer that would do it justice, I'd try printing the poem side-by-side with the picture. Alas, I have only a B/W laser printer maximized for text, not art.