City of Exile by Glynn Young

Photography by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. 
Used with permission.

I am excited to guest post the poem City of Exile by my friend in poetry Glynn Young for National Poetry Month. Glynn is an excellent poet and writer and is the author of A Light Shining, Dancing Priest, and the blog Faith, Fiction, Friends. Glynn writes extensively about faith and culture, life and work and writes for The High Calling and Tweetspeak Poetry. It has been a great pleasure and joy reading Glynn’s work over the years and I am sure you will enjoy it too. Here is the poem City of Exile by Glynn Young.


City of Exile

A city of granite walls
and marbled streets, cold,
a city of exile, not inclined
to mercy or pity. I walk
the streets of the city
of exile, sent, preferring to be
in the belly of the whale.

Faces of strangers confront
the stranger’s face, my face,
and I listen, sent to listen
and to pray for this city
of exile, this place of aliens
for aliens. My footsteps echo
on hollow stones.

I walk the streets of this city
of exile, to seek my home
I this city thirsting for light,
the light I thirst for, seek
desire in this city exile where
few speak and none smile.
My singing attracts stares.


By Glynn Young
Faith, Fiction, Friends

She

Three Beers, photo by Kuba Bożanowski, 
Creative Commons, via Flickr

She

She spoke as the wind blew

Her words more blurry

With every pint of brew

The night would soon see to

What becomes of us

After three brew

The palms rustled

At the breeze off the sea

And there walked the one of us

For there was no she

© October 1, 2012, Robbie Pruitt

This poem, She, was originally submitted to the October Beer and Wine poetry prompt on Tweetspeak Poetry here. While it as not chosen, it got a mention here as “stiff competition.” I was very honored just to have written alongside of my friend Glynn Young and all the other wonderful poets on Tweetspeak. Glynn’s poem Art Form, With Beer was the best overall. You can see Glynn’s poetry and his winning poem on his website Faith, Fiction, Friends here.