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  • "Wind Telephone", and: Sermon
  • Nicholas Samaras (bio)

"Wind Telephone"

(Kaze no denwa)

In Japan, a wind telephone was created and connectedto nothing save the dead.

People now drive cross-country to arriveat a perfect garden overlooking the tsunami ocean,

to tentatively walk into a disconnected antique booth,pick up the phone, alone, and begin

speaking to ether and memory.Every one of us has the wind of a soul

we would talk to, finally, if allowed.What would I say

in a country of cherry blossoms?Greatest love, don't worry,

I am enduring. Like this silencewithin the receiver, like touching

wind and distance, I survived to carry you—in my wallet, my cell phone, my heart

that, every day, betrays you by living—that, every day, honours you by living— [End Page 102]

that, every day, I can never decidewhich truth is stronger.

Sermon

Only a visiting priest will tell you the truth.

It's not that your regular priest will lie to youbut your regular priest will lie to you.

He will think of his paycheck and hold back.He will fear your offense and gentrifyhis spiritual message too much until you won'teven get the point. He won't risk rocking the byzantine boat.

Only a visiting priest will never care who you are,parish council president or not. Only the visiting priest

will give you the full force of what you need to hear,and never care if you don't like the message.

A visiting priest has the freedom of bluntness.With nothing to risk, nothing to be blackmailed over,

he'll speak the truth to your culture, your deadspirituality, your idolatrous language.

That priest will be gone after the Divine Liturgy.His Liturgy is the most divine, preached in truthwithout fear of reprisal.

A good sermon is meant for people to hate.A good sermon is a gold light [End Page 103]

meant to shake, burn, and change you.A good sermon is meant to leave a scar

as you press your back into the hard pew,as you say, what the hell—

as you hurry out of the church you own,scandalized by unrecognition. [End Page 104]

Nicholas Samaras

Nicholas Samaras is from Patmos, Greece (the "Island of the Apocalypse") and, at the time of the Greek Junta, was brought in exile to be raised in America in Woburn, MA. He's lived in Greece, England, Wales, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, Jerusalem, and thirteen states in America, and he writes from a place of permanent exile. His most recent collection is American Psalm, World Psalm, from Ashland Poetry Press. Currently, he is completing a new manuscript of poetry and a memoir of his childhood years living underground.

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