Louis’s Plan for Peace
Ferguson, Missouri, summer 2014
At this intersection of rivers
The omphalos the belly button of America
Emanating dream repair of old wrongs
Histories of violence and recrimination
Declare a History-less-ness
The beginning of peace-making
Forgiveness and thickening of compassion
Let the past be past
Here Now
In this noble heart-line city
Named for the Louis who brought two Crusades
Louis IX 13th century
Captured by Egyptians in his first Crusade
Settling Aco Caesarea and Yafo
Building defenses for future Crusades
He would go on two of them
Dying at the eighth crusade
Only Canonized King of France
Louis IX
Saint Louis
Responsible for mass burnings of the Talmud
Expanding the Inquisition in France
The mock nobility of his title
Lieutenant of G*d on earth
Ho Louis I live in your city I am speaking
Peace and forgiveness at the intersection of events here
It could have happened anywhere up and down the heart-line
Or even the far reaches of this expansive country
But it’s here
Like unlike all other cities
O Saint Louis
Lieutenant of G*d on earth
Turn over your dominion
Let us all take our histories and put them in a notebook
For peace making we begin fresh
We begin new peace starts now
We may trot out our stories later but for now
We are listening
When we come to know we are more alike than separate
We will unpack our histories
Tell them like a story redeemed
Sacred rite from storehouse palace Earth
O Saint Louis
O crusader
O Lieutenant of G*d on earth
Give up your title
Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021