Tag Archives: poetry

Quick to Dead [Couplets]

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I gasp in my last minute living loud,
I'd dreamt of being carried on a cloud.
But,
My body 's too heavy, my mind too light,
and nothing remains once I'm failed by sight.

Just a pile of death stacked before the door,
as carrion feeders squawk out for more.

In eternal darkness, that endless void,
I was once created, & now once destroyed.

BOOK REVIEW: Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke [Trans. Vita & Edward Sackville-West]

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Duino ElegiesDuino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Out: February 22, 2022 [In some markets it may be out already.]

This is a reissue of the original English translation of Rilke’s elegies composed on the karst cliffs of northeast Italy in the early 1920’s. The book consists of ten medium-length, angel-laden elegiac poems. [Yes, dude was just that into angels.] The translator’s notes are posted as an epilogue and the volume has a new preface. It should be noted that the translators suggest one think of it as one long elegy in ten parts.

I’m far from qualified to comment on the skill of translation from the perspective of how well it catches the meaning and nuance of the original poems. However, the Sackville-Wests’ words are evocative and impactful in their own right, and I enjoyed and was moved by this collection of poems. [In their notes, the translators say they decided it was most productive to try to artfully paraphrase rather than getting too caught up in strict literal translation.] I’d highly recommend this book for poetry readers.


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Gothic Imagination [Free Verse]

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I first saw the stone beast
by the light of a bright day --
frozen, still & placid

My second sighting was on a rainy night,
a steady, careless rain,
the kind of rain
that seems to have declared
itself the new default mode.

I saw it in the space of lightning flash --
the silhouetted gargoyle.
It lacked the fine detail
of its sculptor's effort.
It lacked the clean edges
and ornamental effects.
Imagination filled in the lost detail
with scales rippling under
muscular flesh.

And while the lightning felt prolonged,
it was still just a flash --
leaving me to wonder whether
I'd really seen it rear back,
preparing to lunge off the wall?

And then I saw the world through its eyes
and all was better...

and then all was worse.

Contemplative Gorilla [Tanka]

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the gorilla
looks deep in contemplation;
children are bored,
but I can't help but wonder
what it is he's plotting?

Sunflower [Haiku]

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a sunflower.
the spiral of its florets
claims perfection

Sacrifice Play [Common Meter]

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A prayer was made at the altar --
a prayer no one could hear.
A sacrifice had been promised
of someone all held dear.

But not one soul would take the knife,
and do the wicked deed:
to take that life, an unearned life
and speak the evil creed.

They dragged the victim to the rim
of an old volcano.
Just one kick would be all it took;
still, they all said, "Hell no!"

What kind of beastly deity
could fault them for failing?
The kind whose sense of right and wrong
is fucked beyond ailing.

Nordic Summer [Kyōka]

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nordic summer.
the wee hours look like either
sunrise or sunset
is upon us, and
either way, it's true