The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 11/18/09 (warning: graphic subject matter)

[BlueIris]

"The People's Temple"

--For Richard Tropp (English Department, 1972-1978) dead in Guyana 1978

They worked and sought and stared
and thought they saw, at last, the Sun.
It was the spy-hole of a furnace
they looked through.

Better that fiery glimpse
than no vision at all,
than dull eyes fastened
on the square end of a tube
and a long safe life in a cold blue haze.

--Don Emblen

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. powerful

thanks.

[BlueIris]

2. I think this little poem

is a frightening glimpse of what they saw, how they perceived it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear BlueIris...

Wow.

Most excellent...

Thank you.

[BlueIris]

4. It's a good one. nt