Friday, May 4, 2007

Subwoofer

I thought perhaps that this poem by Denver Theological Seminary professor, Doug Groothius, though catchy and rather humerous, was a tad excessive.


Thumping, bumping from nowhere—louder, deeper, unmistakable,
unavoidable.

Now from everywhere—pounding, roaring, bursting into my
unprotected being, uninvited, unstoppable.

A rolling, prowling object
radiating meanness, rudeness, crudeness, lewdness.

Sonic stench of thick machine noise
Putrid pulsations penetrating the unwary sensorium.

Subwoofer
Sonic-ravager
Noise-blaster
Rudeness-amplifier
Rudeness-accelerator
Boom-bomber
Bombast-er

Nowhere to hide
No shield to wield
No escape from the quake.

Vibrations vitiating body and soul
No cover for the ears
It roars in through the pores,
the spores of sonic death,
disintegration, degeneration.

At last, the beastly roar retreats
from the scene of the cultural crime.

The wounded remain
dazed, angry, helpless

On it thunders, to terrorize, victimize all in its audio wake
More sensoria to scuttle
down the wretched road

Shalom undone,
plundering peace, ravaging reason,
ear by ear, soul by soul.

Subwoofer
Sub-humanizer
De-humanizer
Anti-humanizer
Uncivil, uncivilizing
profitable, popular, poisonous

Subwoofer

Nowhere to be seen or heard or feared or hated
inthe Kingdom that is to come!


-Kyle-

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this is a very creative and well-written poem, and a lot of what he says is pretty true. (Especially the parts where it says subwoofers are inescapable and, at times, rude.) But I agree...it is a little extreme. Says who there won't be subwoofers in the Kingdom to come? :)

Anonymous said...

hmm, interesting, especially the onomatopoeias ... but honestly, I don't really know that I get the author's point...

is he saying that subwoofers are a sinful indulgence or just really REALLY annoying?