when you said
you can’t live
a life of the mind
reading writing traveling
it’s not realistic
that’s when
I knew
you never understood
me
Month: July 2016
back in high school
watching certain politicians
this year
I’m back
in high school
and that’s not
a good thing
pictures
there are pictures
in drawers
one does not open
some memories
are best left buried
under old receipts
expired warranties
business cards
of places
one doesn’t go to
anymore
from No. LII from Trilce by Cesar Vallejo
Or you’ll want to accompany old age
to unplug the tap of dusk,
so that all the water slipping away by night
surges during the day.
translated by Clayton Eshleman
facebook pictures
as I post pictures in albums
of trips I’ve taken
this past year
I find they are devoid
of people
or at least a person
who I would imagine
standing there
filling the frame
with her presence
and though there is no name
nor face
to that presence
I miss her
just the same
Olvido
Another beautiful Turkish poem translated by Rukiye Uçar at FORGOTTEN HOPES.
Olvido These evenings are always vulgar. Once the day is gone with its splendor Filling up everywhere with our loneliness In a scream of colours from our garden, A hand starts to take out from our pack The sorrows smelling of lavender; These evenings are always vulgar. Regrets, attacking in waves, Pushes that bronze door of oblivion And the soul, full of holes with the arrows shot; Here, all of a sudden, you are in the old house where you were born The lamp and the stairs are watching your way, The cradle is creaking with silenced lullabies And all the lost, defeated, crestfallen... It is with the beauty of unspoken love The poems left incomplete on papers; One, towards a morning smelling of rain remembers one day that he opened a door, A cloud holding still, a bird flying, A stone that he knelt down and ate cheese and…
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he said
he said
nobody listens
anymore
and then spent
the rest of the night
talking
an interview I did a month ago with Al Cole on his People of Distinction radio program. The interview actually starts after a 9 minute intro by Al and lasts about 40 minutes. It began as a plug for my book Rizzo’s World but went in other directions thanks to Al’s varied interests and my own background. Hope you enjoy it.
what I miss
the tins of tea
the cakes cookies
that occasional smile
old pictures
letters once sent
are appreciated
but the conversations
are what I miss
from poem XXXIII in Trilce by Cesar Vallejo
It will not be what is yet to come, but
that which came and already left,
but that which came and already left.
translated by Clayton Eshleman