The Want Bone (American Poetry Series) - Hardcover

Pinsky, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0880012501 ISBN 13: 9780880012508

Publisher: Ecco Pr, 1990

Synopsis

Poems deal with the unseen presence of history, the evolution of desire, the creative genius in an ordinary shirt, the life of a diamond cutter, and the perspectives of religion

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Drew Pinsky hosts the phenomenally successful radio show Loveline, now syndicated in almost 100 regional markets across America. For five years he co-hosted the nightly MTV program of the same name. A regular on Politically Incorrect and The View, Pinsky has been a guest on dozens of national television outlets, and has been profiled for Time, Premiere and Newsweek. In 1998 Pinsky and Loveline co-host Adam Carolla published The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love. Currently, Pinsky is the medical director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, CA. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Susan, and their eight-year-old triplets.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the Childhood of Jesus

One Saturday morning he went to the river to play.
He modeled twelve sparrows out of the river clay

And scooped a clear pond, with a dam of twigs and mud.
Around the pond he set the birds he had made,

Evenly as the hours. Jesus was five. He smiled,
As a child would who had made a little world

Of clear still water and clay beside a river.
But a certain Jew came by, a friend of his father,

And he scolded the child and ran at once to Joseph,
Saying, "Come see how your child has profaned the Sabbath,

Making images at the river on the Day of Rest."
So Joseph came to the place and took his wrist

And told him, "Child, you have offended the Word."
Then Jesus freed the hand that Joseph held

And clapped his hands and shouted to the birds
To go away. They raised their beaks at his words

And breathed and stirred their feathers and flew away.
The people were frightened. Meanwhile, another boy,

The son of Annas the scribe, had idly taken
A branch of driftwood and leaning against it had broken

The dam and muddied the little pond and scattered
The twigs and stones. Then Jesus was angry and shouted,

"Unrighteous, impious, ignorant, what did the water
Do to harm you? Now you are going to wither

The way a tree does, you shall bear no fruit And no leaves, you shall wither down to the root."

At once, the boy was all withered. His parents moaned,
The Jews gasped, Jesus began to leave, then turned

And prophesied, his child's face wet with tears:
"Twelve times twelve times twelve thousands of years

Before these heavens and this earth were made,
The Creator set a jewel in the throne of God

With Hell on the left and Heaven to the right,
The Sanctuary in front, and behind, an endless night

Endlessly fleeing a Torah written in flame. And on that jewel in the throne, God wrote my name."

Then Jesus left and went into Joseph's house.
The family of the withered one also left the place,

Carrying him home. The Sabbath was nearly over. By dusk, the Jews were all gone from the river.

Small creatures came from the undergrowth to drink And foraged in the shadows along the bank.

Alone in his cot in Joseph's house, the Son
Of Man was crying himself to sleep. The moon

Rose higher, the Jews put out their lights and slept,
And all was calm and as it had been, except

In the agitated household of the scribe Annas,
And high in the dark, where unknown even to Jesus

The twelve new sparrows flew aimlessly through the night,
Not blinking or resting, as if never to alight.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Pr
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0880012501
• ISBN 13: 9780880012508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 70