February 2012
29 posts
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ask me ...
“Ask me whether what I have done is my life.”
Wonderful.
Ask me
Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn...
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like a perhaps hand ...
III
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a...
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looking for signs after parting
As a child, I always looked for signs. I counted steps on my way to places (something I have since learned is common among many musicians) and was sure if I ended on an even number, I had good luck. If I was wishing fervently for something, I would look for confirmation everywhere that my wish would come true: A word on the side of a passing delivery truck, a song on the radio, an overheard word...
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a ready heart ...
i think that, sometimes, your heart has to be ready for the poem. just like a lover, it has been there all along; growing, maturing, moving toward you without your knowledge. but when you meet, the words slip right into where they belong.
so keep your heart open.
“Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they...
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contemplation
CONTEMPLATION (kɒntəmˈpleɪʃən) 1. thoughtful observation. 2. full or deep consideration; reflection: 3.purpose or intention.
I am trying to carve out more time for this.
Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cézanne, 1890; Paul Gaugin
(photo: mine; iphone 4s; Art Institute of Chicago)
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Sonnet XCI. ... nothing is worth more than your...
XCI
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body’s force;
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest;
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is...
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heard but not seen
Reblogged by request - here you go, anon.
Originally posted 09 Sept, 2010.
……………
My office has a balcony over a public space. It is a beautiful fall day, so I have my sliding door open to catch autumn while I can. I hear people chat as they walk through the courtyard.
This morning, I heard a single, strong voice state emphatically:
“But I never knew...
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if there is something to desire 9 ... 17 ... 18...
18
—Sing me The Song of Songs.
—Don’t know the words. —Then sing the notes.
—Don’t know the notes. —Then simply hum.
—Forgot the tune. —Then press my ear
to your ear
and sing what you hear.
(Vera Pavlova)
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i have a need for your voice ...
I have a need for your voice,
a longing for your company,
and an ache of melancholy
for the absence of signs of arrival.
Fantastic. Here is the entire poem:
XII: From ‘El Rayo Que No Cesa’ (Miguel Hernandez)
Una querencia tengo por tu acento
una apetencia por tu compañía
y una dolencia de melancolía
por la ausencia del aire de tu viento.
Paciencia necesita mi tormento,
urgencia de...
need to travel ...
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three odd words ... three-odd ...
The Three Oddest Words
When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold.
(Wislawa Szymborska - trans. S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh)
(Hannah Höch - “liebe” 1931)
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i like my body when it is with your ...
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like„ slowly stroking...
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to one unknown ...
To One Unknown
I have seen the proudest stars
That wander on through space,
Even the sun and moon, But not your face.
I have heard the violin,
The winds and waves rejoice
In endless minstrelsy; Yet not your voice.
I have touched the trillium,
Pale flower of the land,
Coral, anemone, And not your hand.
I have kissed the shining feet
Of Twilight lover-wise, ...
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evening love song ...
Evening Love Song
Ornamental clouds
compose an evening love song;
a road leaves evasively.
The new moon begins
a new chapter of our nights,
of those frail nights
we stretch out and which mingle
with these black horizontals.
(Rainer Maria Rilke - translator uncredited)
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…Mysticis umbraculis
She slept: her finger trembled, amethyst-less And naked, under her nightdress: After a deep sigh, ceased, cambric raised to her waist.
And her belly seemed of snow on which might rest, If a ray of light re-gilded the forest, A bright goldfinch’s mossy nest.
(Mallarme)
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angelic intervention trope ...
I’ve written in the past about my fear (phobia) of dogs. What I haven’t told you is that I evolved into a full-fledged, card-carrying, supply-your-own-metaphor dog lover.
I wish I could share with you a tale of miraculous canine-human interaction; the “angelic intervention trope” of bible stories, wherein the very course of one’s life is fundamentally altered. Or...
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Mozart in E-flat Major
(Hsia Yü)
I turn around.
I feel Monday’s well-shaven face lightly
caress my left shoulder
most cherished part
most crucial here and now
…..
So which Mozart piece was the poet referencing in this title?
Unknown.
I choose to believe it is the Adagio in Eb Major (from Sonata K. 457 in C Minor); In rondo form,...
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sound of rain
the sound of rain
fills the quiet of
the dark as it
falls through leafless
branches.
nests
unprotected.
your hand finds
my breast
thumb rolling nipple,
holding it
as if the first time.
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Veux-tu me prendre dans tes bras?
Conjugal
A man is bending his wife.
He is bending her around something that she has bent
herself around.
She is around it, bent as he has bent her.
He is convincing her.
It is all so private between them.
He bends her around the bedpost.
No, he is bending her around the tripod of his camera.
It is as if he teaches her to swim
as if he teaches acrobatics
as if he could form her into...
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in the library...
An Afternoon in the Stacks
Closing the book, I find I have left my head
inside. It is dark in here, but the chapters open
their beautiful spaces and give a rustling sound,
words adjusting themselves to their meaning.
Long passages open at successive pages. An echo,
continuous from the title onward, hums
behind me. From in here, the world looms,
a jungle redeemed by these linked sentences...
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a (little) keats
”Poetry should…strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.”
- John Keats
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metaphor ... knowing
Understanding a metaphor is as creative a process as creating the metaphor itself.
What does it mean to know something?
Thin
How anything
is known
is so thin—
a skin of ice
over a pond
only birds might
confidently walk
upon. A bird’s
worth of weight
or one bird-weight
of Wordsworth.
(Kay Ryan)
January 2012
22 posts
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just too ...
Too smart
Too tall
Too educated
Too curious
… well …
Too bad.
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A Poem
Tell me, if I caught you one day
and kissed the sole of your foot,
wouldn’t you limp a little then,
afraid to crush my kiss?…
Nichita Stãnescu
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passion [pash-uhn]
[pash-uhn]
Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night. ~Terri Guillemets
(photo credit: mine; iphone4; pogo studios during recording session)
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and out flew millions of tiny things ...
…
And into the north room she went
Inside she found a beautiful box
The most beautiful she’d ever seen
Pandora thought that there must be
Something equally beautiful inside…
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keeping things whole
. “Lady in the Water” Toni Frissell December 1947
I have been thinking a lot about wholeness, completeness and connectedness: The many ways we come into, and move out of, one another’s lives.
“Keeping Things Whole” is one of my favorite poems. At first read, I was drawn to the compactness of the poem and the pauses forced by the spacing. The initial images of the...
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excerpt no.43
…. Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. …
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the republic of dreams
She lay so still that
as she spoke
a spider spun a seamless web
upon her body as we spoke
and then her limbs came loose one by one
and so my own
(Michael Palmer)
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challenge in translation ... "tremble" or...
Notice how something as seemingly small as changing the order of pronouns can change poetic meaning. What do you think about adding word emphasis; draws *one* voice; where none existed and without admission of editorial action?
All that aside —- one of the most sensuous and beautiful Rilke poems. (Original included for my Deutsche Freunde.)
Translation #1 (uncredited) Love Song
...
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ask me no questions ... i shall not disappoint you
Ask Me No Questions
Ask me no questions,
I shall not possess you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall not desert you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall not disappoint you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall not dislike you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall bring God to you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall make God feed you.
Ask me no questions,
I shall place you on God’s blue-gold Throne.
(Sri...
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what are YOU waiting for?
The Wait
It is life in slow motion,
it’s the heart in reverse,
it’s a hope-and-a-half:
too much and too little at once. It’s a train that suddenly
stops with no station around,
and we can hear the cricket,
and, leaning out the carriage door, we vainly contemplate
a wind we feel that stirs
the blooming meadows, the meadows
made imaginary by this stop.
Rainer Maria...
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welcome winter!
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