My weapon is a melody,
My sharp sword is a verse,
My prayer a faithful missile fired
Across the universe.
Imagination changes lives,
And poems are armed with dreams,
Guthrie’s guitar killed fascists, yes
The truth will set us free.
The opening line came from today’s prayer meeting, which sparked off thoughts of Guthrie and The Notting Hillbillies version of The Weapon of Prayer.
(17.03.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Image: Al Aumuller/New York World-Telegram and the Sun (uploaded by User:Urban), Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woody_Guthrie_2.jpg
Art
Poem 192 – An Artist? Me?
I wonder if the street artist
who paints the lines along the road,
finishes with a signature,
a declaration: ‘This is mine!’
Or does the cashier get a credit
in recognition of the music
performed skillfully day by day
extemporaneously at their till?
And how about the office temp
who chisels out the perfect script
incisive words carefully cut
and sculpted on their laptop screen?
Or what about the manager
who orchestrates the staff,
conducts with policies and emails:
please take a bow for your performance!
There’s something in the way we’re made,
embedded deep within our soul,
that leads us to express ourselves:
the truth is everyone’s an artist.
A throw away joke over our church drop-in lunch about signing road markings got me thinking…
(23.06.23)
© Ben Quant 2023
Photo by Grooveland Designs on Unsplash
Ode for the Day 
