02.06.2016

Ezra Pound - Pick a Fern


Pick a fern, pick a fern, ferns are high
“Home” I’ll say: home, the year’s gone by,
no house, no roof, these huns on the hoof.
Work, work, work, that’s how it runs
We are here because of these huns. 

Pick a fern, pick a fern, soft as they come, 
I’ll say “Home”.
Hungry all of us, thirsty here,
no home news for nearly a year. 

Pick a fern, pick a fern, if they scratch, 
I’ll say “Home”, what’s the catch?
I’ll say “Go home”, now October’s come. 
King wants us to give it all, 
no rest, spring, summer, winter, fall, 
Sorrow to us, sorrow to you.
We won’t get out of here till we are through. 

When it’s cherry-time with you,
we’ll see the captain’s car go thru, 
four big horses to pull that load.
That’s what comes along our road,
What do you call three fights a month,
and won ‘em all?

Four car-horses strong and tall
and the boss who can drive ‘em all
as we slog along beside his car, 
ivory bow-tips and shagreen case, 
to say nothing of what we face
sloggin’ along in the Hien-yun war. 

Willows were green when we set out, 
it’s blowin’ an’ snowin’ as we go, 
down this road, muddy and slow, 
hungry and thirsty and blue as doubt

(no one feels half of what we know).

01.03.2016

Rumi - Burnt Kabob

Last year, I admired wines.
This I'm wandering inside the red world

Last year, I gazed at the fire
This year I'm burnt kabob

Thirst drove me down to the water
Where I drunk the moon's reflection

Now I'm a lion staring up totally
Lost in love with the thing itself

Don't ask question about longing
Look in my face

Soul drunk, body ruined, these two
Sit helpless in a wrecked wagon
Neither knows how to fix it

And my heart, I'd say it was more
Like a donkey sunk in the mudhole
Struggling and miring deeper

But listen to me: for one moment
Quit being sad. Hear blessings
Dropping their blossoms
Around you.
God

28.12.2015

Charles Bukowski - I Made A Mistake

I reached up into the top of the closet
and took out a pair of blue panties
and showed them to her and
asked "are these yours?"
and she looked and said,
"no, those belong to a dog."
she left after that and I haven't seen
her since. she's not at her place.
I keep going there, leaving notes stuck
into the door. I go back and the notes
are still there. I take the Maltese cross
cut it down from my car mirror, tie it
to her doorknob with a shoelace, leave
a book of poems.
when I go back the next night everything
is still there.
I keep searching the streets for that
blood-wine battleship she drives
with a weak battery, and the doors
hanging from broken hinges.
I drive around the streets
an inch away from weeping,
ashamed of my sentimentality and
possible love.
a confused old man driving in the rain
wondering where the good luck
went.