"I won’t survive I’ll, never survive the night"
By Bruce Edward Sherfield
Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ "Do not go gentle into that good night"
I won’t survive I’ll, never survive the night,
Stay close to ground and hope for a cool, wet place;
That yellow bitch in the sky, Oh was she right.
Used to run guns to meth labs, I, Sodium Bright
In old churches whose priests were exploding, expecting
I won’t survive I’ll, never survive the night.
Jails, they are very, very, very small—mine tight
Would they interview Mother? The mother of murderers,
That yellow bitch in the sky, Oh was she right.
If I sneeze, I will kill, never once learned to bite;
Last best books are lost on the big, bad streets,
I won’t survive I’ll, never survive the night.
I can’t breathe, I can’t live, within their palace of blight
Pack a gun of crazy pills like any able man and seem free,
That yellow bitch in the sky, Oh was she right.
And you, my family, with faces drawn and white,
Wail, dance, me back to my perfect little cell, I pray.
I won’t survive I’ll, never survive the night.
That yellow bitch in the sky, Oh was she right.
"Do not go gentle into that good night"
by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Bruce on his tribute: This is a process of firsts for me. To tell the truth, I’m not an avid poetry or literature reader. Although I love words with all my heart, I don’t set out to delve into these domains of creative discovery. It’s like in music, I don’t sing many covers or learn other people’s song all that much. If something touches me, then I try to find out why. And Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” has always done that. It just hits me hard. I see the moodworld it creates. He doesn’t try, for or achieve, perfection, in my humble opinion. Some lines waver in and out of a thought or an example, filtered through some emotion or another. That is where the true power is found. I’ve been terribly convinced. I had a long poem called “I won’t survive the night” about a man in jail who wants to stay in his cell, for he thought the madness in here was nothing compared to the madness out there. Someone told me that it reminded her of “Do not go gentle into that good night.” I’d never read it, so I did, and I knew I had to do something in his honor. I won’t use the words “modernized” or “revisited” or “urbanified” to describe my process. The jut of my villanelle still must respect my original poem more than anything else. But then I recorded it, to see if my voice and the drone bass could extract even more out of it. It is a rare thing when I give homage, creatively applied, to such a fine piece of work. Not the last, hopefully. I hope I did Mr. Thomas justice.
________________________________________________________________________________
Bruce Edward Sherfield has always been an UFA, an unidentified flying artist, dividing his career between dance, acting, songwriting, rap, composing, collage, voiceover, and his biggest passion: the written word. He has a BFA (Biggest Fluke of ALL?) from the University of Florida in collage, painting, and performance. He has done the music thing with bands like Spontane, Versus and Sophia Lorenians, at many festivals like Rock-en-Seine, GaroRock, even the TV show One Shot Not. He is 3-time co-editor/designer of the Bastille Lit Magazine of SpokenWord Paris and co-host of a weekly writing workshop at Shakespeare & Co. since 2011. In 2014, he gave his voice to the documentary, “Voyage en Barbarie” which won numerous international awards, including the Albert Londres. In 2015, he taught poetry/slam/hip-hop to young writers for the US Embassies in the Congo, Senegal, and Niger. In 2016, he was invited to Conques to give an art-therapy workshop against the trauma of torture. He collects typewriters and donates them to kids, and his first sci-fi novel is almost dans la boite!