The Christmas Scale

An abandoned doll's tale

A weathered, frayed doll sits quietly at a corner
Its patches illuminated by dim rays of light
Shining through the dusty window yonder
Making the place a mysterious sight


A fine layer of dust encases the old cloth doll
Giving it an antique touch; faded glory
However, its bright beady eyes seem to call
Out to you, imploring you to hear its story


It ended up here, in this musty attic
For a reason, one that was extremely grievous
The doll takes a deep breath, gives a hic
And begins its tale, its expression serious


It had once been bought by a fickle boy
Who took a fancy to it, and seized it
Marking it as his property with joy
Promising that his love would never quit


He showered it with compliments and
Affection, always whispering sweet nothings
To it and taking it to his fantasyland
Where they would go for walks in clearings


Often, they would sit in the moonlight
Watching and wishing upon the stars
That shone, high up in the sky so bright
And the doll would think bad times were far


Not long after, however, the boy grew bored
And decided that the doll was passe
So he bought other things he could afford
While tossing the patched doll away


Thus, it lay wretched on the ground
Of the old attic, reminiscing its sad life
As days passed by, and dust settled around
The place where forgotten objects were rife


For a long time, the poor doll still
Hoped and believed the boy would be back
To collect it for a hike up a hill
And then its life would be back on track


But its hopes slowly faded over time
As it began to realize the bitter truth-
That it would never again hear the chime
Of the clock, or slide down railings so smooth


It perceived that the boy had never
Truly loved it, that he had only liked it for
Personal comfort and fun, if ever;
Stepping all over it like it was the floor


So, with bitterness and resentment
It relates its sorrowful tale
Tears dripping down its crummy cheeks
As it tries to repress them and fails


Upon finishing its story, it sinks back with
A sigh, one of sorrow and of resignation
Helplessly awaiting the day it would breathe
Its last breath, before its final cremation.


Alice

The dispensables

 One day, and that day is not far away, it will be us being alone and lonely, sinking in the empty space.

Empty Space

"I sink deeper and deeper,

with every move i make,

I hate this place with a passion,

Its so lifeless and dark,

I wish someone would feel this,

Empty space with in my Heart"...

                                                                            James Quin

Loneliness

'Won't you come and see

loneliness? Just one leaf

from the kiri tree.''

Basho

Upon Westminster Bridge

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth 

(1770-1850 / Cumberland / England)

Sonnet

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul. 

I love you as the plant that never blooms

 but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

 thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

 risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

 I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

 I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

 so I love you because I know no other way

 than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

 so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

 so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Cel mai frumos poem de dragoste

For Those Who Greeted Me 

1. You came to me this morning

And you handled me like meat.

You´d have to live alone to know

How good that feels, how sweet.

My mirror twin, my next of kin,

I´d know you in my sleep.

And who but you would take me in

A thousand kisses deep?

2. I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat.

I´m just another snowman

Standing in the rain and sleet,

Who loved you with his frozen love

His second-hand physique -

With all he is, and all he was

A thousand kisses deep.

3. All soaked in sex, and pressed against

The limits of the sea:

I saw there were no oceans left

For scavengers like me.

We made it to the forward deck

I blessed our remnant fleet -

And then consented to be wrecked

A thousand kisses deep.

4. I know you had to lie to me,

I know you had to cheat.

But the Means no longer guarantee

The Virtue in Deceit.

That truth is bent, that beauty spent,

That style is obsolete -

Ever since the Holy Spirit went

A thousand kisses deep.

5. (So what about this Inner Light

That´s boundless and unique?

I´m slouching through another night

A thousand kisses deep.)

6. I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,

I´m back on Boogie Street.

I tried to quit the business -

Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.

But sometimes when the night is slow,

The wretched and the meek,

We gather up our hearts and go

A thousand kisses deep.

7. (And fragrant is the thought of you,

The file on you complete -

Except what we forgot to do

A thousand kisses deep.)

8. The ponies run, the girls are young,

The odds are there to beat.

You win a while, and then it´s done -

Your little winning streak.

And summoned now to deal

With your invincible defeat,

You live your life as if it´s real

A thousand kisses deep.

9. (I jammed with Diz and Dante -

I did not have their sweep -

But once or twice, they let me play

A thousand kisses deep.)

10. And I´m still working with the wine,

Still dancing cheek to cheek.

The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -

The heart will not retreat.

And maybe I had miles to drive,

And promises to keep -

You ditch it all to stay alive

A thousand kisses deep.

11. And now you are the Angel Death

And now the Paraclete;

And now you are the Savior's Breath

And now the Belsen heap.

No turning from the threat of love,

No transcendental leap -

As witnessed here in time and blood

A thousand kisses deep.

Leonard Cohen

September 21, 1998

Clown in the moon

Clown in the Moon

My tears are like the quiet drift

Of petals from some magic rose;

And all my grief flows from the rift

Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,

It would crumble;

It is so sad and beautiful,

So tremulously like a dream. 

Dylan Thomas

Full moon

"They say true love only comes around once and you have to hold out and be strong until then. I have been waiting. I have been searching. I am a man under the moon, walking the streets of earth until dawn. There's got to be someone for me. It's not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone."      

 Henry Rollins 

Image credit: Jason Wharam Photography

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears 

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

My mother often told me, angels bonded your life away 

She said I would accomplish, but trust in God and pray 

I'm on the King's Highway, I'm travelin' everyday 

'Cause I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears 

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

My mother, she's in glory, thank God I'm on my way 

Father, he's gone too, and sister she could not stay 

I'm trusting Him everyday, to bear my burdens away 

'Cause I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears 

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

I thought when she first left me, I'd pray 

for a little while 

Soon it all would be over, and I'd journey on with a smile 

But the thought as I get older, I think of what I told her 

And I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears 

Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes 

Well, well

Shelter

I felt it shelter

to speak

to you

Emily Dickinson

Sderot

Sderot, A child's painting 

It took me twenty years to love 

this hole in the middle of nowhere. 

The cotton buds dispersed in a white flame 

and the wind meddled in the cypresses, 

until I saw for the first time, 

with an accurate eye, 

the unsophisticated buildings beneath the roof of clouds, 

until I heard 

the wonderful rumbling of the street. 

The last whisper expelled from waves of asphalt 

blended with the rustle of evening’s thud on the ground, 

like the voice of a forgotten woman that betrayed her 

and told the truth which she tried 

to conceal in her face. 

Years of erosion 

have taught the children to fondle the water in the stone, 

to splash in the puddles paper boats with farcical hope. 

The circus-like past of the girls blossomed with the hiking of a skirt 

when the crowed sawed him in two with its gaze. 

Only places bereft of love are entitled to absolute love. 

Shimon Adaf

The Deathwatch Beetle

The deathwatch beetle

earned its name

not from its ugliness

or our terror

of insects

but simply because of the sound 

it makes, ticking.

Linda Pastan

The Absence

“I speak to you across cities

I speak to you across plains

My mouth is upon your pillow

Both faces of the wall come meeting

My voice discovering you

I speak to you of eternity

O cities memories of cities

Cities wrapped in our desires

Cities come early cities come lately

Cities strong and cities secret

Plundered of their master’s builders

All their thinkers all their ghosts

Fields pattern of emerald

Bright living surviving

The harvest of the sky over our earth

Feeds my voice I dream and weep

I laugh and dream among the flames

Among the clusters of the sun

And over my body your body spreads

The sheet of its bright mirror.

- Paul Eluard, “The Absence” (1942)

Osip Mandelstam (Poet)

Osip Mandelstam,  Jewish-Russian poet: January 15, 1891 - 1938 (murdered in Stalin’s death camp in Vladivostok)…

Illustration: David Levin

Alone I stare into the frost’s white face.
It’s going nowhere, and I—from nowhere.
Everything ironed flat, pleated without a wrinkle:
Miraculous, the breathing plain.

Meanwhile the sun squints at this starched poverty—
The squint itself consoled, at ease … 
The ten-fold forest almost the same …
And snow crunches in the eyes, innocent, like clean bread.

                                                              — January 16, 1937

(Translated by John High and Matvei Yankelevich)

I cover the waterfront

I cover the waterfront
Watchin' the ship go by
I could see everybody's baby
But I couldn't see mine
I could see the ships pullin' in
To the harbor
I could see the people
Meeting their loved one
Shakin' hand
I sat there
So all alone
Coverin' the waterfront

And after a while
All the people
Left the harbor
And headed for their destination
All the ships
Left the harbor
And headed for their next destination
I sat there
Coverin' the waterfront

And after a while
I looked down the ocean
As far as I could see - in the fog
I saw a ship
It headed this way
Comin' out the foam
It must be my baby
Comin' down
And after a while
The ship pulled into the harbor
Rollin' slow
So triple (?)
And my baby
Stepped off board
I was still
Coverin' the waterfront

Said "Johnny,
Our ship had trouble - with the fog
And that's why we're so late
So late
Comin' home
Comin' down"

Wishes for a new year

May you see

a beetle deliberately

unfolding his aerodynamics;

a tomato seedling

triumphantly thrusting his arms

into the sunlight,

clasping the husk of his seed

like an afterbirth;

may you see

the baleful eye of the barbet

soften as he watches you

placing out a chicken carcass;

a brave little bubble

in your glass of Chardonnay

fighting entropy

and at last giving up

with a small hiccup;

may you see

your beloved's eye unveiled

by a sleepy eyelid,

and see reflected time

tiptoeing backwards

to a moment jointly held in joy.

May you see the yacht

you are sailing in

run before the wind of time

towards the misty blue line

of unexplored yesterdays.

De Waal Venter

(South-African poet)