late autumn garden (2)

not enough tears
to sing the countless
deaths within

.
.

ivy-bound (12 art nouveau selves in high and low)

.
.

divination in the late autumn garden

the ancients used to draw 卜 and 口
a crack in a tortoise shell and a mouth
told of the future hidden
in the bones of the translucent dead.

the cracks in my waters, the mouth of time lost
the bones of time found
they reveal everything except your silence.

the wind blows and scatters my roses
a handful of petals
upon my waters, upon your silence.

note:

占, pictograph made of the two radicals 卜 (cracks in the tortoise shells used for divination) and 口 (mouth, to say), means "to tell someone's fortune, to predict, to divine".


.
.

for the one in love

I am far, far beyond that island of days where once, it seems, I watched a flower grow, and counted the step of the sun, and fed, if my memory serves, the smiling animal at his appointed hour. I am shot with wounds which have eyes that see a world all sorrow, always to be, panoramic and unhealable, and mouths that hang unspeakable in the sky of blood.

How can i find bird-relief in the nest-building of day-to-day? Necessity supplies no velvet wing with which to escape. I am indeed and mortally pierced with the seeds of love.

from By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

by Elizabeth Smart



.
.

like a drifting cloud

If someone asks
My abode
I reply:
“The east edge of
The Milky Way.”

Like a drifting cloud,
Bound by nothing:
I just let go
Giving myself up
To the whim of the wind

Ryokan

Wenn jemand
nach meinem Wohnsitz fragt,
Antworte ich:
„Am östlichen Rand
Der Milchstraße“.

Gleich einer ziehenden Wolke,
Durch nichts gebunden:
Ich lasse einfach los,
Gebe mich
In die Launen des Windes.

(für Renée)



.
.