(no subject)

[rejectomorph]

The Dry Tongue

Pierre Reverdy

-translated by Kenneth Rexroth

There is a nail
   Holding up the slope
The bright tatter of twisting wind blows and anyone
  who understands
     The whole road is naked
the pavement the sidewalks the distance the railings are
  white
          Not a drop of rain
          Not a leaf of a tree
          Not the shadow of a garment
                        I wait
                          the station is a long way off
The river still flows as you go up along the embankments
    the earth is dried out
        everything naked and white

With only the movement of a clock out of order
            the noise of the train passed
                  I wait

(no subject)

[amberdawnpullin.livejournal.com]

O Me! O Life!

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew'd,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer
That you are here - that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

- Walt Whitman

(no subject)

[insidiousintent.livejournal.com]

Antimatter

On the other side of a mirror there's an inverse world,
where the insane go sane; where bones climb out of the
earth and recede to the first slime of love.

And in the evening the sun is just rising.

Lovers cry because they are a day younger, and soon
childhood robs them of their pleasure.

In such a world there is much sadness which, of course,
is joy.

-- Russell Edson

from 'mass for hard times'

[lunar-endeavor.livejournal.com]

Kyrie
R. S. Thomas

Because we cannot be clever and honest
and are inventors of things more intricate
than the snowflake---Lord have mercy.

Because we are full of pride
in our humility, and because we believe
in our disbelief---Lord have mercy.

Because we will protect ourselves
from ourselves to the point
of destroying ourselves---Lord have mercy.

And because on the slope to perfection,
when we should be half-way up,
we are half-way down---Lord have mercy.

"Variation on the Word Sleep," by Margaret Atwood

[elsabeta.livejournal.com]

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and as you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.