harbor, studded with ships
ships made islands by heavy anchors
immune to the relentless undulation of the sea
***
tawdry neon red
pulsing in a puddle
the words unreflected
but the meaning is clear
***
gleaming brass caps
top stone buildings
stout, imposing
a Japanese might say Fudōshin
[– the imperturbable]
5.) On Love and Barley by Matsuo Basho [Japanese]: One doesn’t get better haiku [and other traditional Japanese poetry forms] than Basho.
4.) The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur [Indian-Canadian]: This isn’t the expected fair for an “around the world” post as it’s not blatantly infused with setting / geography, but culture does factor in prominently.
3.) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman [American]: Not only does Whitman explore the many dimensions of America, he also references other cultures and locales. [There was a fascination with the East brewing in Whitman’s day.]
2.) Octavio Paz / Selected Poems by Octavio Paz [Mexican]: Paz was a diplomat as well as a Nobel Laureate, and his poems include many references to India (where he was posted) as well as Mexico.
1.) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran [Lebanese-American]: Featuring an intriguing melange of advice in poetic form.
NOTE: It’s not as global a list as I’d like. I’d love to hear what works others might include in the list. I don’t think poetry gets translated as much as fiction and so it’s a bit of a challenge. It’s much easier to find examples of novels & short story collections from far-flung corners of the world.
Death the Barber by William Carlos Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a collection of 39 poems by the twentieth century poet William Carlos Williams. It’s a thin volume, and is part of Penguin’s Modern Classics — a series of short works (small short story collections, novellas, and poetry collections; all less than 100 pages) that feature writers from the past century or so. Like many, my experience with Williams didn’t extend much beyond his red wheelbarrow (not included herein) and so it was nice to get a taste of a broader range of his poems.
The poetry is free verse with experimental feel. The gathered poems are as short as a few lines and as long as two-ish pages, but most fall in the one to one-and-a-half page range. Williams was an imagist, and these poems reflect that focus on creating vivid imagery while using economy of words. While imagery is given priority, Williams doesn’t completely ignore sound, using alliteration and repetition to create interesting aural effects here and there. Nature is a common theme, but not an exclusive one in these works.
Among the more noteworthy poems are the titular poem (“Death the Barber”), “Dedication for a Plot of Ground” [an elegy to his grandmother, Emily Dickinson Wellcome (not the poet sharing the same first two names),] “Young Sycamore,” “Death,” “The Botticellian Trees,” and “The Bitter World of Spring.”
I enjoyed this little collection and that it wasn’t just greatest hits — which in Williams’ case would revolve around his famous “Red Wheelbarrow.”
Cubes of sand
Tumble on a tiny scale
Scouring history
Camel lurches
Only in a land of sand
could it kneel
Grain of sand
Do you miss the sea
from whence you came?
Bleached bones
Sandblasted lopsided
How will you go?
Wind blown
zebra stripes in the sand
Nature’s echo
Dubai
pounding drums
echo down the valley
birds calm
deep breath
fog dissipates
common peril
fog follows
will it catch us
before the pass
cow grazes
on the high trail
dispiriting
glaciers glow
in sunrise orange
forge iron, not
on the ridge
falls can be lethal
worth it
barren branches
rake the sky above
tines chaotic
crow turns head
aiming its lustrous eye
pausing mid-meal
snowy silence
ends in flapping wings
then returns
cornstalk stubble
dusted in dry snow
desiccated
breath tendrils
roil into limbo
forgotten
water flows
under stark skies
to open seas
exiles flee
train eating track
one way
late monsoon
winter gray skies
thick & low
pink blooms
hold through the cold
dogged bind
silent rites
acted out now
later lost
breathe & sway
bath in forest air
samara rain
half a coffee
sits on an oak table
long cold
devil days
a line feeds the train
one way
madman rants
spittle flies in an arc
message lost
sniffing mouse
waggles its sniffing nose
turns & retreats
cheep-cheep
baby bird calling
no answer
steaming coffee
lazy tendrils
curl idly
overcast
Prague skies above
faux winter
hawk’s spiral swoop
snatches a sack skyward
morsels spilling
crow tugs rat carcass
like a combat comrade
cursing pal’s flab
Maribu meeting
looks formal: coat and tie
civil as Congress
Tiger Riding for Beginners 