Poemas Internacionales International Poems

Poetry Class
Honoring Joy Harjo
John Grey
Abbie Massey Cotrell
They were gathered there in the place of all beginnings…
the women who birth women,
wild hair tangled in stars, voices echoed by moon.
The clay is ready they said—
strong with bone of proud horse,
slipped with blood of broken heart.
Hurry they said—the wild herd is passing
and they threw you onto the back of sweat slick stallion.
Hold on they said—when skin strips from bone
and black mane blinds the eye.
Hold on until you feel the sweet red of Muscogee mud
and strange new air explodes the lung—
then loose your cry
into the dry night sky like white heat lightening.
They will call you Joy… and you will sing their pain.
A Clear Midnight
The boys are at the poetry again,
pressing lips against it,
holding it up to the nose.
One even tries to wear it.
Read it, I tell them,
but no, it’s on paper,
thus, the paper plane.
And it’s words
and not a one
has read one of those in years.
Tastes good, says the youngest,
as he stuffs a metaphysic down his throat.
Comes in handy, declares another,
wiping his shoes with Lake Poets.
Look, I tell them,
it’s poetry,
you’re not supposed to use it.
But they don’t listen.
Not with Coleridge
stuffed in their ears.
Walt Whitman
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes
thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.
Poemas Internacionales
Manchmal
Hejo Müller
International Poems
Sometimes
Hejo Müller / translated by James Brandenburg
Manchmal tropfen
die Tage herab
ins Keuchen des Windes
Sometimes
days drip down
into the panting of the wind
Es scheint so, als kämen dann
nur noch ganz wenige
Wochen angekrochen.
It seems that
very few weeks remain—
weeks crawling in on their knees
Schon angesagte Stunden
verkriechen sich wieder…
hours crawl away too soon—
hours already doled out
Alle Stille—bitter wie Galle
All that silence—bitter like bile
Ach, wenn es doch
bloß keine Sekunden gäbe…
Oh, if there were only
no more seconds…
(Wir haben ja auch keine Angst vor dem Tode!)
(We are not afraid of death!)
Voices de la Luna, 15 August 2016
19