#760 - just to keep us going

 

1.ii.22

760

3.32

just to keep us going

 

the pheromones

a nag of care

don’t forget

argument thin

foot traffic

wall because

anticipate foes

the end-in obsession of men

 

each craft

nail driven home

 

hold your breath

love comes

the words the wheel

the hope to be free

 

taunt, riddle

punchline laugh

 

pall to bear

call to arms

 

dinner of course

the a hillside of berries

a cup of tea

biscuit

 

metronome wind up

Everest

and need to name

 

a little of the all of us

all just so that we may

yonder

tautology too

 

suspense!

the secret of ourselves

 

pay your taxes

tell the tale

receive this bread for light

 

of a morning

upright again

not telling

time in its pyjamas

 

tunnel end

the idea of duration

an egging on

 

arrow of the halfway fallen

the womb wish again

 

to be more than bones forgotten

 

dreams of flying keep me up

 

this is the song – join in!

esperanta serio #185 - ekfrastiko - interrompita bankedo

 

185

ekfrastiko

"Banquete Interrupido" de Juan José Gárate Claveros

de la Muzeo Thyssen en Malago

 

 

ĉu estas bona tago

por la virbovo

kiu interrompas la bankedon?

 

malhela figuro

vosto supren

ĉiuj kornoj el sunlumo

 

disĵetas stangon por fruktoj

aĵpentraĵo

mort-vivo

 

sub la tablo

aŭ saltis supre

 

kiaj ŝtrumpoj, punto!

cinabra veluro

tiom malmulte da malordo

al la katalogo de ĉi tiu merceristo

 

oreloj kovritaj

do estas nur la bildo

perukoj kaj ĉapeloj kaj mebloj

kalorioj forbruligitaj pro streso

ĉiu mano esprimplena

por montri kiel manoj estas desegnitaj

 

malbona okulo super la pordo

Madono por trankvilo

en ŝia malluma niĉo supre

ŝtono senpasia

kiel la virbovo estas antikva

 

kia plezuro en ĉi tiu senmoveco!

en la momento

 

ni

neniu el ni

scii kion ni faras

 

 

Ekphrastic:

Juan José Gárate Claveros' 'Banquete Interrupido'

from the Thyssen Museum in Malaga

 

is it a good day

for the bull

who interrupts the banquet?

 

dark figure

tail up

all horns out of sunlight

 

scatters a trestle for fruit

a still life

 

under the table

or leapt on top

 

what stockings, lace!

cinnabar velveteen

so little disarray

to this haberdasher's catalogue

 

ears covered

so there's just the image

wigs and hats and furniture

calories burnt off with stress

every hand expressive

to show how hands are drawn

 

evil eye over the doorway

Madonna for calm

in her dark niche above

stone impassive

as the bull is ancient

 

what pleasure in this stillness!

in the moment

 

we

none of us

know what we do 

 

#760 - the emancipation

 

31.i.22

760

3.31

the emancipation

thoughts of unsleep

 

forget which way it was over the border

I remember the Sydney Harbour Bridge

and other side Byzantium

everyone had to walk

who had a passport back then?

 

it was quinquereme

and palanquin

 

‘why believe this one?’

ancestor asked

for which temerity and custom

became a vine and grew

the garden over

air as free as sunlight there

hands cupped for the rain

 

all the while a rhapsody

whatever strings there were

and tuned them

minor corners

scurry, run

pitchforks, flaming brands

 

you have to imagine what we were chained to

can put a year on it

there was a tax on being

it was named after us

for municipal pride

 

spring again, the old riff

cruel days of now and then

 

can sing in any language, mend

 

in all the forms of time we sink

you can look for me

we’ll be gone

 

esperanta serio #184 - neĝo plenigos

 

184

neĝo plenigos

 

neĝo plenigas

kie ĝi

fluos poste

kiam estas

ne plu neĝo

 

mia menso havas ion

de ĉi tiu stilo

mi konas min mem

nur por nun

sed nek kiam nek kie

mi iros

 

neĝo plenigos

 

 

snow will fill

 

snow fills

where it will later flow

when it’s no longer snow

 

my mind has

something of this style

I know myself

for now

but neither when

nor where

I go 

#759 - speak to me, you stones

 

30.i.22

759

3.30

speak to me, you stones

thinking of Goethe and Freud in Rome

 

it’s only the truth interests me

some people tell it

as if it were there

as if they could reach out, touch

this once in a lifetime

never to be repeated

and then we’d know

who we were

when we were

 

gladiating lions

kiss ring

make eternal

 

it’s only the truth interests me

 

glory that was

all witnessing

 

as trees scribe over

clouds colour

a sudden bird

stain of the rain

runs down

 

pale marble

some people call

the gods

to praise

the crookedness

of all

 

and flung!

 

cold stones so far from fire

each a race sprung up

 

the city is over here

 

as if we could reach out, touch

the last dark to which

grows back

 

how they all lie hidden

once in a while

 

spread the stain of self

of headsup, topple too

 

reach

who, unplinthed

and legend gone

makes mighty

lightning takes

 

ghosts, come each through another

in monument

 

rags of the open air

run square

for a museum

 

feel the mind vanishing

of names, of who we are

 

imagine it all back

the jumble

 

touch

speak to me, you stones

 

in sunlight purples

in rags of snow

then would we

count straight lines

 

keep all these deaths in the open, out

truths of reach

and overbalance

 

once, just now

and never

 

each season its own

who, when

and topple too

last the dark

to which

and ever

the how of far

and have to

 

there is a stillness belies

the every orb spin

 

who has it in such bones

to speak?  

 

when we were who

how had to be

 

it’s only the truth interests me

and some people tell it

as if it were there

as if they could reach out, touch

this once in a lifetime

never to be repeated

and then we’re know

who we were

when we were

and how things

had to be

 

you can keep all of this in your head

esperanta serio #183 - subskribo

 

183

subskribo

 

mi falis en skribon de infano

vojaĝis tiun vojon reen

mallerta buklo por buklo

reen al la dentoj

al la lango

kaj antaŭe

 

marborda skribado

de la oceano

mi sekvis

la kurso de la tringo

kaj insektoj

sub arboŝelo

 

kaj, ĉie, mi estis

 

estis io, kion skribis la vento

iu signo inter steloj

mi ne povas memori nun

 

 

signature 

 

I fell into child’s writing

traveled that way back

clumsy loop for loop

back to the teeth

to the tongue

and before

 

shore scribing

of the sea

I followed

the sandpiper’s course

and insects

under bark

 

and, everywhere, I was

 

it was something the wind wrote

some sign among stars

I can’t remember now