If we had known it was going to become Steven Curtis Chapman Day, the Kentucky desk would've baked and/or eaten a cake yesterday.
Bad jobs news from Paducah.
State of emergency in Evarts.
April Madness in Aurora!
Ones and dones: Thanks, GoHeath, for your summary of last night's boys' games. ... Coach Fudge's call for a Columbia "blue out" pulled the Adair County girls through at Taylor County in the 20th District, but the boys lost by two to the home team. ... Etown John over Radcliff North in girls' 17th. "The John Hardin Lady Bulldogs made history against North Hardin in the regular season, but the Lady Trojans weren’t about to let it happen again in the postseason," writes Nathaniel Bryan in today's News-Enterprise. ... Henderson County's boys play at home against Webster County tonight for the Sixth District championship, but that's not the story getting the attention in Henderson. ... Russellvillians can now commence making their travel plans to Bowling Green for next week's Fourth Region tournaments. ...
Also on tap tonight: From Paducah's Maiden Alley Cinema, it's the McCracken County district Poetry Out Loud competition. (You've got to figure this kid to be the favorite out in the Harlan County district.) It is very, very excellent and appropriate that the Heath sophomore will be reciting a Vachel Lindsay poem. Vachel Lindsay got clobbered then and gets clobbered now for a lot of what he wrote, for a lot of different reasons. But let me say this: That guy was, as a great writing teacher at WKU used to put it, "a writing man," baby. "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" (50 stars) is just a masterful piece of work that literally makes my hands shake when I read it. Here's ... well, heck, here's the whole thing (hooray for public domain, and rest in peace, Vachel Lindsay):
[To be sung to the tune of The Blood of the
Lamb with indicated instrument]
I
[Bass drum beaten loudly.]
BOOTH led boldly with his big bass drum—
(Are you washed in the blood of the
Lamb?)
The Saints smiled gravely and they said:
"He's come."
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank,
Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends
pale—
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail:—
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,
Unwashed legions with the ways of Death—
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
[Banjos.]
Every slum had sent it half-a-score
The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
Every banner that the wide world flies
Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang,
Tranced, fanatical they shrieked and sang:—
"Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"
Hallelujah! It was queer to see
Bull-necked convicts with that land make free.
Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare
On, on upward thro' the golden air!
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
II
[Bass drum slower and softer.]
Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod,
Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God.
Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief
Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
Beard a-flying, air of high command
Unabated in that holy land.
[Sweet flute music.]
Jesus came from out the court-house door,
Stretched his hands above the passing poor.
Booth saw note, but led his queer ones there
Round and round the mighty court-house square.
Yet in an instant all that blear review
Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.
The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled
And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.
[Bass drum louder.]
Drabs and vixens in a flash made whole!
Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!
Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,
Rulers of empires, and of forests green!
[Grand chorus of all instruments. Tambourines to the foreground.]
The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir.
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
O, shout Salvation! It was good to see
Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free.
The banjos rattled and tambourines
Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.
[Reverently sung, no instruments.]
And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer
He saw his Master thro' the flag-filled air.
Christ came gently with a robe and crown
For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.
He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Great Paducah Sun story about a gift to Murray from the City of the Big Shoulders.
Rest in peace, Hunter S. Thompson, too. It would've been fun to see what he wrote about this.
Which, of course, leads us to Owensboro's Johnny Depp. The end.
Love the Johnny Depp story.
ReplyDeleteI'm very, very excited about the Vachel Lindsey poem. The other day, I was thinking about his poem "Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan," about the election of 1896. That election was, for rural America, at least as traumatic as the election of 1968 was for urban liberals. Here is how Lindsey summarized McKinley's victory:
Election night at midnight:
Boy Brian's defeat.
Defeat of western silver.
Defeat of the wheat.
Victory of letterfiles
And plutocrats in miles
With dollar signs upon their coats,
Diamond watchchains on their vests and spats on their feet.
Victory of custodians, Plymouth Rock,
And all that inbred landlord stock.
Victory of the neat.
Defeat of the aspen groves of Colorado valleys,
The blue bells of the Rockies,
And blue bonnets of old Texas, by the Pittsburg alleys.
Defeat of alfalfa and the Mariposa lily.
Defeat of the Pacific and the long Mississippi.
Defeat of the young by the old and the silly.
Defeat of tornadoes by the poison vats supreme.
Defeat of my boyhood, defeat of my dream.
"Defeat of my boyhood, defeat of my dream." That's just great stuff.
"Defeat of tornadoes by the poison vats supreme." Man, that's just great. For the last 50 years, folks have been complaining about how the East Coast media is unfair to the folks who live in the middle part of the country. But no one has come up with a better line than "Defeat of tornadoes by the poison vats supreme."
ReplyDeleteIf Vachel Lindsey had been born in the 1950's, he would have been a much better John Mellancamp.
ReplyDeleteThat poem about the 1896 election is fantastic--love bouncing "Mariposa lily" against "long Mississippi." I hadn't read this one. I had actually never heard of Vachel Lindsay (no fault of the WKU English department--I skipped a lot of my minor classes) until I found the former minister's old high-school anthology in the church library in Raleigh.
ReplyDeleteBy the time we got to college, they had driven Vachel Lindsey from the curriculum. I knew about him because he was in my dad's literature books from the 1950's. Plus, I'm a huge William Jennings Bryan fan.
ReplyDeleteThe 1896 election is the single most under-reported event in American history. It should get about six times more attention than it does.
KHSAA hoops last night:
ReplyDelete-- The Madisonville-North Hopkins girls' team fell, 43-42, in the Seventh District championship at Caldwell County, but the Kentucky desk can exclusively confirm that at least some of the Lady Maroons and their fans weren't so broken up over the loss that they couldn't stomach some (fantastic) Pagliai's Pizza in Princeton before heading home for the long, dark 26 miles back across and up Interstate 69.
-- Things got a little lively at the end of the Fourth District girls' final at Murray's Tiger Gym.
-- Radcliff North turned a giant upset in the 17th District boys' tournament. Home-standing/eliminated Etown was not only the top district seed; it was also the 2011 Fifth Region runnerup.
-- The Owen County boys beat Carroll County by 20 in a 31st District semi, thus extending what is only the school's third 20-plus-win season into at least the round of 128.
-- And in a late report from Wednesday's 54th District action at Leslie County, the Buckhorn boys beat defending 14th Region champ Perry County Central, 46-42. The dispatch from the KHSAA yesterday evening set off a Twitter bomb. @JohnLewisSports this morning: "Woke up this morning to find out Buckhorn beat Perry Central. Most people east of Lexington understand why this is unbelieveable." And @jdemling: "Buckhorn - led by top senior Matt Day - has enrollment of about 125. Perry Central has over 1,300. Huge upset in the mountains." And @JoeyFreaknFosko: "Huge upset ... Allan Hatcher's Perry Central club, a consensus top-10 team, beaten in district semis by Buckhorn, regional All A champ." And @kyhighs: "Agree with @Coach_Kerri ... let's start Twitter movement to get school called off at Buckhorn on Friday #buckhornpride."