BIG AL'S JOVIAL JUKEBOX #12: "Ezekiel's Boneyard" by SLEEPY LABEEF

Albie's note: I almost made this part of my HYMN TIME series but decided it fit the Jovial Jukebox theme a little better-- even if it is a recording of an old folk spiritual.  Sleepy LaBeef is a legendary 6-foot-7 Rockabilly singer from Smackover, Arkansas who has been nick-named "the human jukebox" for his amazing ability to perform requested songs by memory.  His "basso profundo" voice is as legendary in some circles as that of the late Johnny Cash's-- even if it is nowhere near as famous. [Interesting sidenote: Sleepy is often rumored to have been fellow "Arkansawyer" Charles Portis' real life model for the LaBeouf character in the classic novel TRUE GRIT!]

Here, Sleepy sings an old sermon-song based on the "dry bones" vision in Ezekiel 37.  While I do think the prophecy here is primarly about the re-birth of national Israel, I still like songs and sermons that use it to preach spiritual revival.  Both are perfectly acceptable interpretations, whether the hyper-dispensational fellas like it or not. [If you have no idea what i mean by that, great! You're better off!]

The truth is, that Old Book often says many different things within the same passage... The Bible is just amazing!

About this song.... I gotta warn ya... if you pay attention to the lyrics it gets a little sobering!

EZEKIEL'S BONEYARD

by Sleepy LaBeef

1. It was down on the boneyard circuit, there was no way to shirk it
A preacher named Ezekiel was sent
He landed at the station and saw the situation
A valley full of bones was his audience
By way of a suggestion the Lord asked him a question
"Can these dry bones be raised up from the dead?"
The Spirit was beseeching, so Ezekiel went to preaching
And from the pulpit this is what he said.

Chorus:  

Oh! You old dry bones hear the word of the Lord
Stand up on your feet and His goodness repeat
Lay aside your dry profession, Get a Holy Ghost possession
You've been bleaching in the valley long enough

2. The bones begin to rattle, like muskets in a battle
When Ezekiel took his text and started in
It was plain it didn't matter, in spite of all the clatter
Ezekiel kept right on a-clubbing sin
The bones all came together, in spite of stormy weather
To hear the message from the Lord's right hand
It made them sit and wonder to hear this voice of thunder
And from the pulpit issued this command

3. The rattle was terrific; the message was specific
Repent! The preacher roared in thunder tones.
There'll be no absolution 'til you make restitution
The muscle then appeared upon the bones
You'll have no good beginning until you quit your sinning
The muscle soon was covered o'er with skin
His breathless congregation was filled with consternation
As Ezekiel's voice rose and roared again.

4. They sat and warmed the benches while Ezekiel rushed the trenches
And preached the word with all his might and main
It caused a big commotion when he with deep emotion
Said "breath of God come breathe upon these slain."
The wind was soon a-blowing, the bones were soon a-going
Around the place as fast as they could run
While Ezekiel's still addressing they got a second blessing
And now the real excitement had begun.

May 14, 1948 newspaper:

PEACE

"INTRODUCTION To The Gospel Of LUKE" by PSR

 

Albie's note: My favorite book of the Bible is Luke's Gospel, and I have read several different commentaries on it over the years.  Now i am going to tackle Peter Ruckman's 762 page opus dealing with the "Gospel of the underdog" (to borrow William Barclay's memorable label.  I have a love/hate thing with Ruckman's books; I hate all the vindictive slams against other commentators (for one thing they take up too much space!); but  I love it when Dr. Ruckman simply teaches the Bible.  At his best, he has a down-to-earth style that is absolutely unique... as demonstrated here in (most of) his intro to the LUKE commentary. 

 

INTRODUCTION

To The Gospel Of LUKE

by

PETER S. RUCKMAN

The third biographical account of Jesus Christ in the New Testament was written by Paul's missionary companion Luke, “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). From the time he joined the apostle in Acts 16:10–17, Luke accompanied Paul (2 Tim. 4:11) all the way to the time of his execution. For further discussion on the authorship of the book, we refer you to our comments under Acts 1:1 in that Commentary.

Luke’s writing is that of a highly educated, very intelligent man. While we won’t go into the fineries of Greek here, suffice it to say that the language of Luke is a very precise, correct, classical style not found in the writings of a commercial fisherman like John or a publican like Matthew.

Now you don’t need to know Greek or Hebrew to see that the writers of Scripture have different styles and personalities. The truth of the matter is that although “all scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16), the Holy Spirit didn’t override the “holy men of God” He “moved” to speak the words of the Scriptures (2 Pet. 1:21).

Like the living Word, the written word of God has two natures: a human one and a divine one. The divine nature was, of course, the Holy Ghost, and the human nature was the men who wrote it. The men who wrote down what the Holy Spirit gave them had individual personalities, and God spoke through those personalities without changing them.

Because of Luke’s command of the Greek language, the teaching of modern apostate Fundamentalists and Conservatives is that Luke himself was a Gentile Greek. Of course, that proves nothing, for Paul could speak and write Greek quite well when he wanted (see Acts 21:37 and our remarks on the authorship of Hebrews in the introduction to that Commentary). Romans 3:4 says “the oracles of God” were given to the Jews, and the singular exception of Job (written 300 years before Moses penned the Pentateuch) does nothing to overthrow that divine rule. Scofield correctly points out that Luke was “of Jewish ancestry...a Jew of the Dispersion,” probably from Antioch (!).

The Gospel of Luke contains 24 chapters, 1,151 verses, and 25,939 words. The exact time and place of its authorship isn’t fixed. It was obviously written before the book of Acts (see Acts 1:1), which wasn’t finished until after the events of Acts 28 (probably around A.D. 65). Because Luke wrote his Gospel from the eyewitness accounts of Christ’s life (Luke 1:2), the most logical time for him to have interviewed the various disciples and folks who saw and heard Jesus would have been when Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea (Acts 24:27). The most probable time for the writing, then, would be between A.D. 58 and 60.

Luke is what is known as a “synoptic Gospel”; that is, it, along with Matthew and Mark, gives a synopsis of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is nothing wrong with that label per se, but the Liberals use that to isolate and get rid of John’s Gospel as a genuine historical account of the life of Jesus Christ.

You see, it is obvious to anyone that John had a purpose in writing his Gospel.

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).

John wrote his Gospel to show you Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and to get you saved. Such things are “verboten” to unsaved and apostate scholarship. Historians aren’t supposed to write anything to prove any Biblical, theological truth. After all, “all religions are the same,” and “we are all working to get to the same place.” Yeah, and you’re gonna make it if you don’t watch out.

The reason for the so-called “synoptic problem” is the amount of New Testament revelation each author had. Matthew and Mark were the earliest two Gospels, and neither one had anything the Apostle Paul wrote. Luke would have had 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, and 1 & 2 Corinthians. John, though, would have had the entire body of Pauline revelation available to him. When Luke wrote, the destruction of Jerusalem had not yet taken place, but John wrote twenty years after the Jews had ceased to be a nation. That explains the alleged “disparities” between the accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John’s Gospel.

Each one of the Gospels has a special theme and these are given in the Old Testament prophecies on “the Branch” (see our comments on Zech. 3:8 in the Bible Believer’s Commentary on the Minor Prophets, Vol. II). As we pointed out above, John wrote about Jesus as the Son of God; it has a universal appeal not found in the other three Gospels (e.g., John 1:10–12, 3:16, 4:42, 12:32, 21:25). John has Christ’s genealogy going back all the way before Genesis 1:1 (see John 1:1–3). So John emphasizes Christ’s Deity, and he writes to the world at large.

Matthew presents Jesus as the King of the Jews. He traces Christ’s genealogy back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish race (Matt. 1:1). Matthew is a Jew writing to Jews, so his emphasis is on Christ as the “King of the Jews” because those Jews were looking for their Messiah to show up as a conquering King.

The Gospel of Mark is fast-paced with a lot of action. There are not a lot of doctrinal discourses in Mark like you find in the other Gospels. For that reason, the scholars say Mark writes to the Romans. Be that as it may, the emphasis in Mark is on Christ as the Servant of God. Because of that, you won’t find any genealogy given by Mark. Nobody cares from where a servant comes.

The Gospel of Luke, though, traces Christ back to the very first man, Adam (Luke 3:38), so the theme of Luke is Jesus Christ as the Son of man. Luke writes to the Greeks as a group, so he presents Jesus Christ as the perfect man. Luke puts the emphasis on Christ’s human nature, which is why the Liberals prefer it over John’s Gospel, because John emphasizes Christ’s divine nature.

Because of his audience, you will notice a peculiar Gentile slant to Luke’s Gospel. It’s all through the book. In the famous Christmas passage in Luke 2, the angel told the shepherds, “behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL PEOPLE” (Luke 2:10). At Christ’s circumcision, Simeon said He would be “A light to lighten THE GENTILES” (Luke 2:32). Luke changes the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14–30), which was a Jewish weight, to the Parable of the Pounds, a Gentile weight.

While Luke is a “synoptic Gospel,” still there are things peculiar to the book, which are found in no other Gospel account. Luke is the only Gospel to give you the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the story of the rich man and Lazarus. You won’t find the annunciations of John the Baptist or Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, or John. Although Matthew will tell you what happens after the birth of Christ with the wise men, only in Luke will you read about the actual birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And only Luke gives you the conversion of the dying thief on the cross. So without the Gospel of Luke, you would have an incomplete picture of the Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry. The idea that you can use the “synoptic problem” to get rid of one or more of the Gospel accounts is straight out of Hell. You can take the “Q document theory” and the “Jesus Seminar” and deposit them in “File 13” where they belong.

As in every book in the Bible Believer’s Commentary Series, we will take a believing approach to the work of Dr. Luke. We will accept it as an absolutely, 100% correct, historically accurate account of the events as they are recorded. We won’t give a “Continental dollar” (I forbear to give the “original”) for the opinions of apostate scholarship in the matter. Why would we take the conjectures and guesswork of a bunch of educated jackrabbits over the witness of people who lived, worked, and talked with Jesus Christ face to face? Our approach to what the Holy Spirit recorded in the Book He authored is that of the Thessalonian Christians.

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).

If that’s not the approach of the other bunch, that’s their problem; it’s a free country. They can believe anything they want about the Book; just don’t ask us who believe it to give them any more respect for their position or education than we would give to a two-year-old Ubangi baby. They will answer to their Creator just like I will answer to mine (Rom. 14:12). All my chips are on the Book.

 

 

PEACE

 

REVIEWS OF ANIMAL FICTION #1 "Tappan's Burro" by ZANE GREY

Well, I finally read this story a week or so ago in the large print edition I found at my local public library. [I remember a time when I would be disappointed that a book was only available to me in large print-- now... I utter a prayer of thanks when I find some sought-after book in the giant font! Ah, growing older is interesting, my friends!]

Really more of a novella than a short story [In large print it was 88 pages long] TAPPAN'S BURRO was a tale crafted by Zane Grey at what was arguably the height of his narrative power-- the late 1920s.  Originally published in THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL, it is the sentimental but highly affecting story of a gigantic prospector Tappan and his donkey Jenet, whom he rescues as a weak runt of a foal at the beginning of the story.  Jenet grows to become Tappan's closest companion, and the story is divided between 3 separate tales that are interconnected but span many years. 

Even Grey's harshest detractors always seem to admit one thing about him as a writer:  that he was an absolute master of painting landscapes with words.  Indeed, even in this short novel old Zane describes in vivid detail both a blistering summer trek through Death Valley and a fiercely bitter blizzard winter in the Mogollon Rim. There is plenty of action as well [ZG's other best ability was in describing scenes of pure action] and Tappan and Jenet are just a great couple of characters. 

Also, the best short fiction is the kind that that introduces a conflict and pulls the reader straight into it, and this story did that quite well.  Tappan, in the second section of the story, puts faithful Jenet in the backseat for a compromising and ultimately ill-fated romance, the complications of which are pretty realistically drawn.  I must say, Tappan's unexpected infatuation changes the mood of the story and eventaully ushers in a climax that is about as unforgettable as that of any animal story I can remember.

Bring some Kleenix for this one, pardner!

As a story of the bonding between man and animal I found this tale to be top-notch. Truly, it is nothing short of a love story; one about a man and the beast he has grown to depend on in almost every way.  I found it an engaging and surprisingly textured example of western story-telling.  Highly recommended.

PEACE

COOL STUFF FROM LIBRARY BOOKS #24: Texas Ranger BILL MCDONALD, "Fast Draw Sunday School Teacher"

Albie's Note: A great old book, still available for loan from the Tombstone Public Library-- about 17 scenic miles down the highway from my house-- is Ross Phares' Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand; The Story Of Frontier Religion (Doubleday, 1964.)  

More anecdotal than a real "history" volume, but still incredibly entertaining, Phares' 182 page collection details stories about fiery frontier preachers and their encounters with Indians, bootleggers, outlaws, their congregations, and even-- on some occasions--  each-other! I recommend it highly for anyone interesting in Christian History, Frontier History, or both. There are even stories about determined "laymen" in the book, like the one I have copied out for you here.

I like to read anything about the old Texas Rangers and was really impressed by this anecdote about hard-bitten lawman-- and devout Baptist-- Captain Bill McDonald:

Conversion of strong tough men on the frontier did not make milquetoasts of them. The laity followed much in the individualistic, picturesque footsteps of the preachers in combining rugged frontier work with worship. Many of the most notable gun-packing characters of the Old West were also devout Christian workers.

The famous Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald will suffice to illustrate. 

One of the fastest-draw "dead-eyes" on the borderlands, he possessed a singular reputation for tracking down criminals single-handed.  But he also had a singular reputation for regular and punctual attendance at religious services. He was superintendent of his Sunday School, and taught a class of adult men. Only in direst emergencies did he permit his law-enforcement duties to prevent him from conducting his voluntary teaching duties.  And he usually managed to overcome such emergencies.

One Sunday morning he was called upon to investigate the stealing of some horses. Since this could well mean missing Sunday School, he he hurried off in the hope of getting back on time. 

McDonald arrived at the Baptist Church a little behind schedule, but the assembly was still awaiting his arrival. 

He proceeded to open  his class, with only a brief preliminary remark about his tardiness-- a simple apology for having ridden his horse so hard to be back on time.

When Bill McDonald went after a man it usually meant news-- of one kind or another.   The men all wanted to inquire about his trip, but the exercises were already late, and the solemnity of the occasion did not encourage the asking of irrelevant questions.

But... when the class of men had assembled, one fellow could simply not resist asking if the Ranger had caught the horse rustlers.

The Sunday School Teacher nodded casually, as he thumbed his Bible in search of the text for the day.

"Anybody get killed??" the class member asked again, his curiosity out of control.

"Four," the teacher answered, and started reading his text.

Then, as an afterthought, he paused, devoutly, and remarked, as if  someone might not know:

"I was fired upon."

And the class went on, as if nothing extraordinary had occured and this was all in a Sabbath Day's work, as it truly was for Captain Bill McDonald.

From Bible In Pocket, Gun In Hand; The Story Of Frontier Religion by Ross Phares (Doubleday, 1964.)  Pp. 55-56.

 PEACE

BETTER LIVING THRU OLD COMICS #9: Backwoods and Frontier Lore from DELL!

A great old DELL comic [is there any other kinda Dell comic?] was their 100-page super giant LIFE STORY of Abe Lincoln, first published back in 1958.  Although I think I still do own this one [somewhere], the scans here are from the incredible website dedicated to legendary Italian comics artist Alberto Giolitti,  a page which you can visit HERE .  These are some really great info-pages on various aspects of frontier life.

Does any kid get this kind of thing in their entertainment today??

PEACE

COOL STUFF FROM LIBRARY BOOKS #23: "Billy Sunday The Ball-player" from the S.A.B.R., 1989

Many of us know that legendary preacher Billy Sunday was a star baseball player in the late 1800s before he took to his career in pulpiteering, but have you ever wondered just what kind of ball-player he actually was?

Well... Nestled in the stacks of the historic COPPER QUEEN LIBRARY in Bisbee AZ is a 144 page album-sized book called "Nineteenth Century Stars," compiled by the diligent researchers of the SABR [The Society For American Baseball Research.]

The edition there is the original 1989 printing pictured below, although Amazon.com informs me there has been a revised 2012 edition since then.

It is a book dedicated to the forgotten players of early, EARLY professional baseball, and contains 136 profiles of great ball players from the 1800s who have NOT been given Hall Of Fame status. The book is roundly fascinating, and is worth perusing-- if nothing else-- just for all the amazing NICKNAMES of these varied old-time, rough-and-ready, mustachioed, tobacker-spitting "diamond dogs." 

Here-- in one place-- are informative profiles of-- just to name a few:

Robert "The Magnet" Addy, Charles "Lady" Baldwin, Asa "Count" Brainard, Louis "The Gladiator" Browning, Thomas "Oyster" Burns, Elton "Ice Box" Chamberlain, Ignatius "One Arm" Daily, Michael "Ubbo Ubbo" Hornung, Peter "Monkey" Hotaling, William "Dummy" Hoy, G.W. "Jumbo" McGinnis, "Honest" John Morrill, Ed "Cannonball" Morris, Thomas "Toad" Ramsey, Native American player Louis "Chief" Sockalexis, "Silent Mike" Tiernan, "Rip" Van Haltren, and even James "Grasshopper Jim" Whitney!

I LOVED all of this info, of course...but in all honesty the book was mainly useful to me for the following great player profile of one William Ashley "Billy" Sunday.  If you are a fan of either preaching or old-time baseball [I am a major fan of BOTH!] you will love this. I transcribed it myself, so i apologize for any spelling errors.

In any case it is truly informative.  When you read from the various biographical sources that Billy Sunday was considered in his time  a "star player," you can rest assured it is actually quite true:

WILLIAM ASHLEY "BILLY" SUNDAY

Born: November 18, 1862, Ames, Iowa

Died: November 6, 1935, Chicago, Ill.

BL TR 5-10, 160

During his eight-year tenure in the NL, Billy Sunday became widely known as a fair batter (.248 in 499 games), a first-rate outfielder and the fastest man on spikes.  In 5 seasons with Chicago he played on 2 pennant winners, and performed capably in playoffs against the AA St. Louis Browns (1885 and 1886).  Yet "the famous sprinter with sabbatical name" remains best known for his post-playing career.  For, having had a Christian conversion experience in 1887, he went on to become of the most noted evangelists in American History.

Billy was the last of 3 sons born to William and Mary Jane Sunday.  His father, a Union soldier in the Civil War, was killed only weeks after Billy's birth. The impoverished widow sent her sons to homes for soldiers' orphans in Glenwood, then in Davenport, IA.  Leaving in his mid-teens, Sunday worked in Nevada, IA, first in a hotel, then doing farm labor.  Meanwhile he attended the local high school, working as a janitor.  His subsequent move to Marshalltown IA brought not only a furniture store job but also a place on the local ball team-- where he caught the attention of fellow Iowan (and Chicaog player-manager Cap Anson. By 1883, Sunday was a baby-faced rookie in the White Stockings outfield.

How good was Billy Sunday as a ball-player?  The best assessment came from Al Spaulding:

"People love to see him run!"

In no season with Chicago did his weak bat appear in more than 50 games, but his blinding speed made him a more important weapon. In 1887, Boston Herald readers placed him behind King Kelly and Monte Ward as the entire league's best base-runners. Sunday could reputedly round the bases in 14 seconds flat.  A match race with the vaunted Arlie Latham attracted national attention. Sunday won.

Fans remembered him once winning a game by stealing second, third and home on successive pitches! 

But only after leaving Chicago did Sunday become an everyday player, stealing 71 bases for Pittsburgh in 1888  and a career-high 84 wth Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in his final season, 1890.

Moreover, Sunday worked hard on his defensive game. With discipline, his speed became a marvelous asset. He had fielded a primitive .663 in 1884, but four seasons later it was .939 as he actually led his peers in put-outs and total chances per game. In 1890 he paced the league's outfielders in double plays.  His play in the field was becoming magnetic.

It was during the 1887 season, however, that the course of his entire life was changed forever.

On a Sunday Afternoon he sat, "tanked up," at the corner of State and Madison streets in Chicago. Across the street a Gospel Troupe appered, playing instruments and singing hymns Sunday remembered from his childhood.  Beginning to sob, Sunday arose and followed them to the Pacific Garden Mission, addressing his pals thus: 

"Goodbye, boys, I'm through.  I'm going to Jesus Christ.  We've come to a parting of the ways."

Although he continued to play ball through 1890, he refused to play in Sunday games, shunned drinking, smoking, cards and the theatre, and passed his free time giving inspirational talks at local YMCA chapters.  In 1888 he married Helen (Nell) Thompson, a solid Presbyterian woman of Chicago, and she bore him four children.  Finally in the spring of 1891, aged 28, Billy announced his retirement from baseball to enter full-time Christian work.

He began at the Chicago "Y," but then worked as advance agent and occasional preacher for a traveling ministry.  By early 1896, Billy Sunday was on his own.

He moved from mid-west small towns to large citied within a decade, in meetings held in specially built Tabernacles, holding up to 15 thousand!  Sunday's absolute peak of popularity came in the decade 1910-1920  (notably in New York City, 1917), as he revisited all the great NL cities.

On April 17, 1911, in Toledo, he preached the media-event funeral service for 31-year-old hurler Addie Joss, who has just famously died of Tubercular Meningitis.

The famed evangelist never lost his interest in baseball, even though he remained strongly opposed to playing ball on the "Sabbath."  He loved to make a great hit as guest umpire  at semi-pro games in the various cities where he was preaching.

In his preaching, as befit his background,  Billy sunday was athletic and dramatic, earthy and colorful. Sermons were filled with baseball language: the "fastball of the Devil," the sinners "dying on 2nd or 3rd base," the "rally" for Christ and country.

Some accused Sunday of being intolerant, some of being too theatrical, some materialistic (although he lived in relative modesty and raised a fortune for charities!)    But he was always uniquely himself.  And in the end, his potent message rang more decisively across the American landscape than any ball he ever stuck on the diamond.

--Article contributed by James D. Smith, III
and L. Robert Davis

PEACE

POETRY BREAK #14 : "HOPE" A Beat Bongo Tone Poem (With Audio!)

HOPE
by
SKID ROPER
[Richard Banke, 1954-present]

Described by the author as "A word-slingin' beat poem about not giving up!"
[audio clip at bottom...]

One bent and weary one-eyed jack sifting for a hand
Two silvery sentinel statuettes serenade the band
Three therapeutic theramins still pray for a downbeat
Four old tarnished trolley tracks poke up through the street
Five jewel encrusted scepters hidden in a pouch
Six left over Lincoln Logs lost inside the couch
Seven stolen golden idols under the dynamo
Eight unheard of brothers of Curly, Shemp and Moe

HOPE
 
Nine unscrupulous goldsmiths overcharge the meek
Ten fair weekend weather girls foretell it twice a week
Eleven modern Maji muse, now too wise to fool
Twelve tired tricycle tires at the bottom of the pool
Thirteen tardy ticket takers, some, left in the lurch
Fourteen swingin southern bells a-pealing in the church
Fifteen basalt blue bathespheres off to plumb the sea
Sixteen of Mother Theresa's kids seek rock and roll, part three

HOPE

Seventeen multi colored marbles scattered in the dirt
Eighteen hologramic hobos too systemized to hurt
Nineteen gone glissandos glide in the land of midnight lies
Twenty mad midget wrestlers scare up a big disguise
Twenty one empty corncribs disregard the facts
Twenty two city sidewalks simply lead to cul de sacs
Twenty three darkened dervishes' spin for all the world to see
Twenty four hours a day I dream of wingless victory

HOPE

Twenty five framed fatalists lay in state beside the moor
Twenty six fiends in freight cars wont be wondering what for
Twenty seven sad DeSotos sit way out by the power lines
Twenty eight well read librarians calculating unpaid fines
Twenty nine black leather satchels with tanned and tasseled tips
Thirty Nehru straightjackets with matching Freudian slips
Thirty one suave suburbanites do more than laws allow
Thirty two true believers sing behind the gospel plow

HOPE  

Thirty three lucky losers leave mis-quoting Aura Lee
Thirty four future ex-wives pray out at the fever tree
Thirty five bad bold buccaneers sharpening their swords
Thirty six half-hollowed logs play augmented chords
Thirty seven stairway steps made from discarded pews
Thirty eight fists of fury fly making page six news
Thirty nine three card monte rubes with clouded optic nerves
Forty poetasters scat - basting straights and curves

HOPE

Forty one cunning racers stop and pose for all to watch
Forty two pistoleros report carving one more notch
Forty three divining rods waiting for the call
Forty four brown basket weavers sit in front of city hall
Forty five wishful thinkers jog heading for the coast
Forty six jackhammers peal to promote the Holy Ghost
Forty seven laughing lemmings just can't see the thirteenth floor
Forty eight self-fulfilling prophets saunter through the door

HOPE 

Forty nine restless ne'er-do-wells try to scam the mall
Fifty curious coyotes wailin' at Waylon Jennings' wall
Fifty one flagrant semaphores now carpeting the van
Fifty two troubled truants get a Death Valley desert tan
Fifty three venus flytraps bloom alluring without fail
Fifty four blind sightseers collate return to sender mail
Fifty five lawn jockeys standing blameless in the cove
Fifty six holy scapulars left in a filbert grove

HOPE

Fifty seven gray bowery rats, set for a dumpster full
Fifty eight capricious cads crash a midwest tractor pull
Fifty nine nighttime glory hounds just repacked their bags
Sixty cans of goose grease obscure the shoeshine rag
Sixty one partial Greecian urns from the Punic War
Sixty two preacherless parables stashed behind the outhouse door
Sixty three smoldering oracles, stoked and kept alive
Sixty four bars of Soul Supreme on Gladiola Drive

HOPE!!

PEACE