still adrift
in memory
after your visit
in my dreams
once again
drinking bitter coffee
listening to old songs
from those wild begone days
and missing
yes missing
you
old friend
you
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On Ling-Ying Tower, Looking North by Po Chü-i
This high up, I begin to see how small our human realm is,
face distances and know the kingdom of perception is pure
emptiness. Turning away, I start home through the morning
markets–a kernel of darnel tumbling into the vast granary.
translated by David Hinton
following lines from Su Tung-p’o’s New Year’s poems: aching eyes
aching eyes
in flickering light
search longingly
for a port
for this lonely boat
with a candle
in a window
beckoning an old exile
home
a year passes: for Linda on her birthday
f
a year passes
another notch
on the heart
the memories pile up
the overnight bag
once more expands
so many places faces
to encounter
stories to tell
to hear
crowd it all in
before the legs
say no more
but till then
a life lived
in transit
to the next horizon
farther on
Man by Cemal Süreya
A man came upon his hat on the street
Who knows whose hat it was
He did all he could to remember
Remembered a woman, white to the end
A woman opened the window all the way
A woman, who knows whose wife she was
He did all he could to remember.
The stars were like a ruckus on the sidewalk
As it has rained a little while ago
He was like a cloud, he remembered
Under the men’s feet
The stars existed as the stars
The man walked, stepping on the stars
Because it had just rained.
translated by Omer Kursat
an exile’s holiday prayer: for F
God
if you’re there
save me
from all these
old songs
and the pictures
in my head
on this
another holiday
so very far
from home
Homer Bannon from the movie Hud, based on the novel Horseman, Pass By (1961) by Larry McMurtry
Little by little, the look of the country changes because of the men we admire. You’re going to have to make up your own mind one day about what’s right and wrong.
on this Christmas morning: for family and friends
sometimes in a dream
you all appear
only to fade
come morning
and now
a life apart
separated
by the gulf
between the here and now
and the there and was
land and seas away
on this Christmas morning
from Love by Stendhal
Love has always been the most important business in my life, I should say the only business.
Emily Dickinson poem
I held a Jewel in my fingers—
And went to sleep—
The day was warm, and winds were prosy—
I said “‘Twill keep”—
I woke—and chid my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone—
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own—
Leonard Durso 