PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER'S(1525-1569) HUNTERS IN THE SNOW(1565)

They seem already tired, those hunters

in the snow, going downhill with

their dogs, the vast mountains looming

in the distance, the jagged future -

and who or what are we; a raven

looking down from a bough?

30.11.2017

THE SEA THAT IS, THE SEAS THAT SHALL COME

The land falls to the sea, ragged and gray,

and the sea in white and gray rage rises

endlessly to tear down the cliffs. It

has time, the sea,

yet the Sun shall rise over barren and dry

Earth, where ragged cliffs, shimmering

in heat, will fall down

to bottoms of oceans yet unborn

where wind raises sand in endless rage

against the eroding rock.

28.11.2017

MILD RAIN ON TUESDAY MORNING

A morning of faded colours,

a sky of unbroken grey clouds,

water and mud and melting snows;

a late November for our broken times.

World isn't ending in these sorrows

that so crudely carve our minds

with memories and pain as dual knives;

no, the world ended - these are the last rites.

28.11.2017

OF A CERTAIN TYPE OF PHILOSOPHER

A philosopher who claims the separation of
the spirit and the body,

and the supremacy of the mind over matter,

is like an unhappy child, who

watching his parents argue late at night,

comes up with a fantasy to comfort himself

that he is of not this family, that

he is adopted,

and that one day his true,

beautiful and harmonious family

will arrive to take him

to its bosom forever.

28.11.2017

A FALLEN WORLD

The only sane answer

to this fouled world

and its ills

is anger

and hate.

28.11.2017

DAMARIS CUDWORTH MASHAM(1659-1708) AND HER LITTLE PET JOHN LOCKE(1632-1704)

1

How strange that we refuse to see

that it was his time and his patrons,

the very need of recognition

as a philosopher, that made a

philosopher's work what it became

- that he is but a mirror for his time

and the laurel-wrapped footman

of those forgotten 'greats', who

gave him those laurels, paid his bills,

put him under a roof and gave

him his meals - or,

in the worst of times, let

him leave and escape

to phantasies beyond the bloody

bounds of stricken Earth.

2

Philosophy doesn't reflect Eternity

or some unbending skeletal frame

that has robed itself in the visible,

the only thing it reflects is its time

and the philosopher's life, as if in

a muddy pool on a cloudy day,

after rain has stopped.
Only seasons make
the difference.

28.11.2017

YOUR UNFULFILLED WISH

To My Father

You didn't live to see

the frozen rivers' ice

break at spring's coming,

and now, in this desolate

night of my mind, I

can hardly bear the thought.

27.11.2017

BURNING BIGHT

If justice demands it,

then without hesitation,

let the world burn

to ashes.

27.11.2017

JUDAS

Judas

was a liberal

selling Jesus

selling himself

to the Roman

conservatives

27.11.2017

IF YOU ARE VULNERABLE

Conservatives are the people

you can trust

will not care about you.

Liberals are the people

you can trust

to betray you.

Fascists are the people

you can trust

to kill you.

Only the Left

you can trust,

only the left is left.

27.11.2017

RUDYARD KIPLING(1865-1936)

Sometimes the only thing

that a man needs

to be cured of the disease

of supporting war

is his son dying in it.

Yet, we have to ask -

couldn't he have been cured

seeing in their thousands
 the other men's sons

he had lured to their

deaths with his words?

27.11.2017

WHEN THEY ARE GONE

Now, looking backwards

you couldn't say they were great men (and women) -

no, they were more akin

to the people

you find around great people,

prominent in their own way, as long

as it lasted, yet

quick to fade, and now,

forgotten like

the leaves of yesteryear. Where

they are now, no one

goes on anniversaries to leave

a rose or a bouquet or a bottle of

some fine wine or even cognac;

no, they have

found their peace under moss

covered stones with fading letters

and numbers, dates no one recalls

and names only people

like you and me -

the kind of people one once found

around them, the lesser kind

of people the once prominent

had scattered in their midst. And now

we, withered and gray and white

fade with each breath we take.

27.11.2017

CHARLES OLSON(1910-1970) READING HIS POEM 'THE LIBRARIAN' IN MARCH 1966

Out of breath, looking

ten years older than his age

(although back then, as

we might remember,

people looked older than

they do now),

a voice dry, from that mouth

that long ago stopped

moving, breathing, the

mouth that, out of breath,

fires out these hurried sentences

through time, the hand

so vigorously moving

between him and us, in

that long gone night. A

fragment captured and

cast, thrown to fade.

26.11.2017

Watch the video which inspired this.

THE COVER OF ROBERT DUNCAN'S SELECTED POEMS(1997)

Those massive white sideburns!

Like some self-satisfied enormous cat

or Michael Douglas playing vampire

in a box office flop, he

looks to us from the cover

we find difficult to open. There

is some odd, discomforting echo

of life (dry and dusty, fading)

in those long-gone squinting eyes

targeting something forever unknown.

26.11.2017

SUNDAY FOOTBALL FROM THE LA LIGA

After Carlos Bacca makes it 2-0,

it starts to go wrong for Villarrreal:

The Yellow Submarine

hit twice on 55. and 57. minutes,

then, as clear a penalty as

you ever see, a red card

and easy finish from Ever Banega

and its 2-3 for Sevilla. I think

I will go and get myself

another glass (yes, glass) of coffee,

a mug of red juice and

sit back before the laptop,
my back hunched forward

to watch the fuzzy stream

without knowing which team

to root for; the woes of bipartisanship!

26.11.2017

ON THE EDGE OF SEPARATION

We have been here before, on

this edge beyond which possibilities

emerge from the primal chaos

of our lives and crash like mountains on Io,

in vast turmoil. Beholding

this uncertainty, we draw back

to a safe distance, to each other

one more time, preferring our ragged edges,

this slow drift that drives us apart to

the cataclysm of separation.

26.11.2017

ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES WE RUN AWAY TO EXIST

Although there is no hope,

we must continue

against all odds

until the lack of hope

materializes as death.

All the days

of our lives

we run away

to exist.

26.11.2017

MOMENT OF TRUTH

We have to

admit

that we can't

save

some people.

Like

ourselves.

25.11.2017

LEDA AND THE SWAN

All those artists

painting her

and the swan

just a

bunch of perverts

25.11.2017

IN SOME OTHER WORLD, THIS POEM WENT UNWRITTEN

If

it would have gone differently,

this would be a time to

rejoice, yet

now - with you both gone,

not holding him in your arms,

the

future is a ferocious beast,

snarling.

25.11.2017

WHEN THEY HAVE BECOME THE OLD GENERATION OF THE FAMILY

Speaking casually about the dead

they cared about, even

loved

and whom they would bring back

alive in a heartbeat, without

a moment's hesitation

if

it would be in their power,

they try to drive away, to the

dark corners of the room,

to

the night looming outside

death and the reality of death

and their own fate,

their own fate.

25.11.2017

GREATNESS CAPTURED IN PHOTOGRAPHS

All these poets so self-confident

in black-white, all these

old poets dead and gone.

Their self-confidence,

those firm faces with strong-willed eyes

looking directly at us -

all that coming

from somewhere that doesn't exist,

moments that have been erased,

left with these relics with

far less in them than we think.

From mere black on white

we magicians raise

whole persons, days and places

believing our phantasies.

25.11.2017

THE SEED OF FASCISM IS THE BOURGEOIS 'DEMOCRACY'

Liberals can't stop loving Fascists

and making excuses for them.

Conservatives can't stop

turning into Fascists.

On the right, there are only

Fascists and buds of Fascists

ready to bloom black,

ready to bleed the world.

24.11.2017

AGAINST GODS

So long have

they tormented us

with their religions.

The gods need to be dragged

out of their heavens,

off from their holy mountains

and cast

into whatever Hell

they threatened with.

There should be no other

god than

humanity itself.

24.11.2017

THE THREE CABALLEROS

There is something of Hitler

in Baudelaire,

from the

unkempt hair

through the pair of angry holes as eyes

to the dismissive mouth

asking for a small mustache.

That said,

there is much of Poe

in Baudelaire.

The face of the failed artist

dying hating, raging against the world

lost in delirium.

Which brings us back

to Hitler.

24.11.2017

THE LANDSCAPE AND 'I'

The wind races

through the open spaces,

dark clouds drift

in their aimless grandeur.

So vast the landscape

beholding the thoughts
which claim 'I am'.

21.05.2015-24.11.2017

05:25 AM

Black night,

white snow.

Silence.

I wish

it would never end,

this moment

in perfect equilibrium,

that the clock

would be lying,

time as frozen

as my feet

in their blazing cold.

24.11.2017

When the veil falls

how deep the soul 

gazes at the now

unhidden reality;

all certainties evaporate.

We see how fragile

is the ground we built

on. It can not hold.

12.06.2015-24.11.2017

It's a bright day,

so bright

that you can just

vanish

in the light.

09.06.2013

Evening, the songs of birds

and the gales of wind fade.

It's time to rest, to sleep

the great sleep without end.

16.06.2015-24.11.2017

Warm milk,

tea without sugar,

old coffee.

28.01.2016

BHAGAVAD-GITA

The main point of

Bhagavad-Gita

is that Krishna is

a bloodthirsty asshole.

He's there telling

his lies each time

a general on the eve

of battle has second thoughts.

The first death then

is by Krishna's hand:

The conscience of

the man in charge.

07.02.2016-24.11.2017

FIRE ISLAND

Homosexuality kills.

Just ask Frank O'Hara.

A little trophy wife

in a straight home

keeps a man out of a

jeep's way.

October - November 24th 2017

WORDS WRITTEN IN VAIN

No matter how many words you dedicate

to the departed, they are all in vain;

with ink on paper anchoring

what is buried in ground and memory,

lost more each moment,

as we and the ink on the paper both

crawl towards our own doom.

The anchor breaks; all is lost.

24.11.2017

A TRUE LIBERAL

To a true liberal there are no enemies on the right

- which is only natural, as a true liberal

is always drifting more and more to the right.

The current isn't strong, but he let's it take him

freely, without resistance.

To a true liberal his role is to destroy the left;

if this means that he has to give up

all his cherished chants about freedom and liberty

it's a no problem to him -

he never believed in them.

A true liberal is the vanguard or the rear-guad

of the right, depending on the moment.

He praises and defends the major figures on the right,

like they would be his personal heroes

- which they are. He never expects

the right to praise his supposed Liberal 'heroes'.

A true liberal hands everything in a country,

everything on the planet to the right

without a second thought

if the alternative is letting the left

take the reins. There is no limit to the

hate the true liberal feels towards progressive

politics and economics.

23.11.2017

ON THE ARMS OF NEPHTHYS

The day has been long

and white and black

as the days of the winter are;

the day has been cold

and white and black

and now the stars don't shine.

The night opens its arms,

but they are cold and white

shimmering like ice

in the winter dark.

Shivering I lie

down with the night.

23.11.2017

ABOUT GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS(1844-1889) TO ROBERT BRIDGES(1844-1930)

When you are a Poet Laureate

(first living, then dead,

little difference that it makes)

people always remember to thank

you for publishing your now

famous friend's poems -

even when it took 29 years

and moved him from vanguard to

main force, while you poured

out book after book of your own,

little read, then and now. Let

it not said that official greatness

doesn't raise true greatness up,

even if slowly, like mountains.

22.11.2017

FIVE FOR FREEDOM OF PALESTINE

1

Only the attackers have a right

to defend themselves!

2

To attack people one occupies

is to show

love of peace.

3

In peace talks, failure

is never the guilt

of the occupier.

After all, everybody

on his side

says he 'only wants peace'

and if you can't trust

the friends of a brutal occupier,

who can you trust?

4

The occupied people

are guilty

of their own occupation.

The occupying state

is innocent

of the occupation,

in a state of

pure righteousness

on a Moral High Ground.

This is the

confession of faith

for Friends of Israel.

5

When children are killed

by occupiers,

its apparently their parents

who pulled the trigger

or dropped the bomb

or launched the missile.

Or so we are told.

22.11.2017

BREATH

The cold darkness of the winter night,

when all existence is black and white,

it hides from the pain felt in the gray light

of the dismal days filled with fear and remorse.

One can breath the freezing air of the night,

and let it cleanse what was once a soul.

22.11.2017

THE VICTORIAN POETS

If one word would do,

they used ten.

If ten words could tell,

they gave a hundred.

A thousand words?

Better make it twice.

That's what long reigns

does to poetry.

22.11.2017

CYBELE'S SISTERS

It's not a bad time for religion, really,

if you consider Ishtar or Isis or Astarte -

one of the old goddesses

with those enigmatic smiles

and wearing mercy and cruelty

with equal ease. If we

turn to them, it's only because

what came after failed.

22.11.2017

THE WHITE ROSE OF YORK AT PAVIA

White roses don't flourish in Pavia

on the banks of the Ticino.

They wither and with a 

sword-strike bloom red and die.

22.11.2017

TICINO RIVER

From the blue Alpine ice

rushing down the ever-green hills

towards the languid Po, a meeting

ending at the sea.

22.11.2017

PRAY FOR MUBI AND NUMAN?

The massacres in Nigeria on November 21st

The 60 dead in Mubi
and the 45 dead in Numan
just barely make the news
in the 'West' that
doesn't pray for
people with the 'wrong' colour.

22.11.2017

SAN JUAN

Lie by comforting lie

fed to the press

the submariners

under the waves die.

22.11.2017

THE NATURAL STATE OF HUMANKIND

The natural state of humankind

is to crouch around a fire in a cave

and fill the darkness with words.

22.11.2017

THE LANDSCAPE IN COLD NOVEMBER

The world in white, a blanket thrown

over the landscape, a blanket raised

over the landscape, the world in winter.

Snow on the ground, clouds on the sky

so white, so cold, so white, so cold

clouds on the sky, snow on the ground.

22.11.2017

THE NEWS ACCORDING TO GOOGLE

We will fight against Fake News

By hiding the Left

And promoting the Right;

By hiding the State Organs

Of Russia

To promote the State Organs

Of America,

While giving you Planet Nibiru News

& the next religious date for Armageddon

Like the good Free Speech

& Freedom and Liberty above all else

Loving Libertarians we are.

When the State is becoming Us

It doesn't need to be dismantled

But supported and guided

And allowed to guide Us

Towards our shared Fascist Apotheosis.

22.11.2017

'PUBLIC' SCHOOLING

Beat them

and bugger them,

that was the old

Eton way

which England

'great' made.

21.11.2017

IN THE ECHO CHAMBER WITH MARTIN AMIS

The worst mistake you make with his prose

is to take it seriously; the usual

error made with authors

with pontifical tendencies.

Time will be rude to their enterprise

and to those who waste it on them.

Let him be; in the end it's

his own voice alone he wants to hear.

21.11.2017

CHAMPAGNE 1531

Considering how often we encounter the sentence

'You can't criticize capitalism if you drink champagne!'

one would expect champagne to have been

invented by capitalists in a capitalist economy,

instead of by monks in a feudal economy.

You can't criticize feudalism if you drink champagne!

You can't criticize the Benedictine Order if you drink champagne!

You can't criticize France if you drink champagne!

21.11.2017

THE MODERN 'PHILOSEMITE'

As long as we keep on

fighting to stop the Nazis

killing Jews 75 years ago

everything else is ok.

Let someone 75 years

from now fight to save

those to whose plight

we turn our backs now.

21.11.2017