Does this content look wrong? Click here to report any errors.

A poem: No Rest for the Weary

As part of NolaVie’s new Yeah you write! campaign, we are inviting readers to submit New Orleans-related content for a chance to have their work featured on our site. Whether it’s a personal essay about moving from New Orleans, a photo of French Quarter Fest, or a video of a second line, we want to know: what’s your New Orleans story?
Today’s featured submission comes from Anthony Maranise, who was born in Metairie, but at the age of 5, relocated with his family to Memphis so that he could receive treatment for leukemia at St. Jude Hospital. Happily, he’s now in his 16th cancer-free year. New Orleans still beckons, however, and Anthony returns to the city frequently to visit his brother, who lives here. On his most recent trip down to “the Great City,” as he and his brother call it, he wrote what he describes as “a funky little poem.” We enjoyed it, and thought you would, too.
mississippi

No Rest for the Weary

With every step, a new breeze, a new sense of belonging

If ever there were a place more exhilarating for a weary soul.

With each step, I am revived. That emotion once dead, in me, is Resurrected

At the very sight of the muddy Mississippi – knowing where she leads.

The thought approaches, my limits are without

The thought remains – the river – she shall take me to the gulf –

In this city.

Limits, possibilities, travels!

No longer am I bound!

All welcomed, all pleasant.

The sights, the aromas, the people –

Perhaps this has been my missing piece,

Perhaps this experience is what I needed to rest.

It was a journey; this journey that refreshed me.

Straight away, the smell of gumbo z’herbes,

Canal, Iberville, Bienville, St. Anne, and St. Peter

Guided, by the souls of the city, I wander on –

Greeted in Treme by those who live and rest coevally.

St. Jude, Dutch, Kermit, and Marie,

You, legacies! Your stories tell themselves –

How strong; how faithful; how alive!

But, truly, it was not rest

To the left with every block –

And so, you have made me.

Comments

You must login to post a comment. Need a ViaNolaVie account? Click here to signup.