HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 5/1/10

THANK YOUS!

A belated thank you to the children of Westminster Presybterian Church, who made 12 dozen dyed Easter eggs for us to take out. They do this every year, and it's really special. Thank you to the P.K. Yonge 9th graders who collected an awesome amount of food for us, along with some socks and hygiene products. The PK 9th graders are making a special project of learning about homeless people and doing outreach to them. Also a special thank you to all who have donated books and art supplies - they are just flying out of the back of the van. The art supplies, btw, need not be fancy. Sketch pads and crayons are carried off gleefully. People need to make art and always have - think of the cave paintings - and homeless folks are no exception. The playing cards and games you all have donated are also a hot ticket. All lives must have joy and recreation - we need that almost like we need air.

THEY TALK POEMS

The art of poetry is the art of capturing the absolute essential of something. I think that's why so many homeless people talk poems. Their lives are occupied with essentials and they do not have huge piles of horse hockey to hide behind, the way many of us do. Over the years I have turned my some of my conversations with homeless people into poems - often using their words verbatim, and adding a few my own and, in this case, words from an old Spiritual. This is my conversation with Raymond, a few years ago:


“Won’t you sit down? Lord, I can’t sit down,
cause I just got to Heaven going to look around.”

“I’m going to look around.”
says Raymond,
“I won’t live like an animal,
“I won’t sleep in alleys.
“I won’t live where I can’t build a fire,
where I can’t clean up.
I won’t.
“I’m going to look around.”

Deputy sheriffs with guns and clubs
evicted Raymond from the woods,
from his camp on the banks of Sweetwater Branch,
where he bathed and washed his clothes,
where he used to sit at night and read a book
by lantern light.

“I won’t live like an animal,
I’m going to look around.”

Raymond remembers
the days he used to live inside.

“I have nothing now.”
“I’m always alone.
“Where am I supposed to go?
“I won’t live where I can’t build a fire,
“I won’t,
“I’m going to look around.”

I have no answer, though
I know what it’s like
to lose at musical chairs.
We stand together on the
pieces of ground
underneath the soles of our feet,
breathing in and out,
reviewing what we know,
strung thin like prayer beads:

Homeless people have the legal right
to be on a public sidewalk at night.
All other land forbidden as being
parks, private property,
closed until morning.
Homeless people have the right
to be on a public sidewalk at night,
as long as they don’t sit down.

“I won’t sit down.”

As long as they don’t lie down.

I won’t lie down.”

As long as they don’t sleep.

“I won’t sleep.”

“I’m going to look around.”

“May I breathe the air other people breathe?
Or should I breathe only into my cupped hands?”

“Won’t you sit down? Lord, I can’t sit down,
cause I just got to Heaven going to look around”

-Raymond and arupa


Love and blessings to all of you,

arupa

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The Home Van also needs tents, tarps, Vienna sausages, creamy peanut butter, jelly, candles, and white tube socks. Call 352-372-4825 to arrange for drop off. Financial donations to the Home Van should be in the form of checks made out to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601, or can be made online at http://homevan.blogspot.com/