More on poetry

For those still mulling over our debates last week, here's something that Bono did on a CD of Irish poetry a few years back:

First Appears On: Voices and Poetry of Ireland, 2003
Written By: Brendan Kennelly
Performed By: Bono
Someone had mercy on language
changed it into something else I can touch
I can touch grow to love, murmured Aceas
he heard the stranger talkingof how laughter comes from God.
Who, hearing words from his own mouth
and from others, can[not]* stop himself
laughing or freezing in terror
at sound bubbling up out of infinite
emptiness? Well fill it up with pride
and let vanity strut along for the ride.
When the ride peters out at the edge
of small daring, then that other sound
opens.This is the sound of God's laughter,
like nothing on earth, it fills
earth from grave to mountain-top,
lingers there a while, then like a great
bird spreading its wings for home
or somewherelike home, heads out into silence,
gentle and endless, longing to understand
children, killers of children, killers. Mercy. Silence. Sound.
Mercy. Sound. Word. Sound. Change, there must be
change. There is. Say flesh. Say love. Say dust.
Say laughter. Who will call the fled bird back?
Stand. Kneel. Curse. Pray. Give us this day
our daily laughter. Let it show the way.
Thank God someone has mercy
on the words we find we must say.

Note: * in the original text this word is "cannot." Bono, for reasons unknown, reads it as "can."