THE OLD TEASELLERS

The letter reveals how close Baisaõ's[1675-1763] relationship was with high-ranking members of the Nabeshima clan...

Norman Waddell: The Old Teaseller(2008), page 20.

There are old men

who are poor teasellers

out of necessity,

a life forced upon them;

and then there are men

of influence and wide connections,

who choose to play the role,

pretending poverty,

while exchanging letters

with high aristocracy,

and negotiating with abbots

abodes for elite nuns.

To them teaselling

is a performance close to art,

and one day they just

burn their exquisite set.

The tea furnishings Baisaõ used at his shop, including elegant teacups, teapots, braziers, and other utensils, many of them Chinese manufacture, were new to most Japanese... Among them were articles of great rarity...

Norman Waddell: The Old Teaseller(2008), page 28.

28.-29.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

SAVE THE ECONOMY!

Infections surge,

deaths pile up,

and politicians cut

all protections,

because Big Business

spoke and ordered

Big Deaths.

26.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

THE LAST ALEXANDER OF MACEDON

 The Romans later claimed

they made a public clerk

out of the son of

defeated king Perseus

of Macedon.

This, apparently, was

some sort of slight

or an elaborate joke,

causing mirth and laughs

when brought up in parties,

a Macedonian royal

named Alexander

counting Roman accounts

instead of his phalanxes

marching into battles.

26.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

SKELETONS IN CLOSETS

All have skeletons

in their closets,

but some have

skeletons

the size of mice,

and others

skeletons

the size of elephants.

24.-26.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

A WINTER STORM

The snow and the cold,

howling wind

of the winter night

corners us inside

these shivering

walls of flesh,

these shells of thought

trapped in pointless rebellion,

howling against themselves.

13.02.2021-26.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

A LANDSCAPE OF PEACE

The world stops,

black and cold,

at window panes,

and beyond

nothing

but peace.

24.03.2022

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LET'S ALL DIE FOR UKRAINE

Climate change: 'Madness' to turn to fossil fuels because of Ukraine war

- BBC headline on March 21st 2022.

Nothing else matters,

not even the fate of the life on the planet,

who cares about global warming,

because now only Ukraine matters.

Let's use more coal,

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doesn't matter,

because nothing else matters,

not even the fate of the human species,

because now only Ukraine matters.

Let's use more natural gas,

let's flood the atmosphere with methane,

because nothing else matters,

not even the fate of the human species,

because now only Ukraine matters.

Nothing else matters,

not even the fate of the life on the planet,

who cares about global warming,

because now only Ukraine matters.

23.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

CALMNESS

 An evening of peace

of mind,

so rare

in these latter days -

with spaghetti,

and ketchup,

and strong coffee

mug after mug,

black as

the late March night

looking in

through the windows.

22.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

IN THE LATE MARCH DUSK

In the dark blue

of the valley floor,

ice statues

melted into

snowy hillocks.

On the ridge

the fallen day

burns

in black

trees.

22.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON A LATE WINTER DAY

The first walk

of the day,

the last walk

of the day

in the evening

dusk.

22.03.2022

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THE LATER FUJIWARAS

When you lose

political power,

all you are left with

are the mountain

ranges of poetry.

22.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

18:24

In the horizon,

the last purple

light

of the day.

22.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

WHY NOT UKRAINE?

If limited 'autonomy',

under a brutal occupier,

should be enough

for Western Sahara,

as the European Union

and the United States claim,

why is the 'West'

not proposing the same

for Ukraine?

21.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THE POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS OF THE OCCIDENT

  How they rage against

invasion, occupation

and annexation

in Ukraine,

while eagerly championing

invasion, occupation

and annexation

in Western Sahara.

What are

we going to do

with these

hypocrites?

19.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ALWAYS REMEMBER

Never let a right-winger

do a human being's

job.

19.03.2022

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THE 'WESTERN' MIND

The 'Singling out Israel is antisemitism!'

-folks are now

'Boycott and sanction Russia!'

-people, without any reflection,

and still clutching

their earlier stance,

because 'It's a different thing!'

- to them...

19.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

WALKING BACK FROM THE COUNTY CENTRE, LOOKING DOWN AT A VALLEY

The snows

melt into

the mist,

the black

wall

of the forest.

18.O3.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Poems

IVOR GURNEY

Even the mad

are not happy

in this world,

except

in melodies

and verses.

17.03.2022

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ON A DAY LIKE THIS

  On an another day,

a day like this of light

and snow,

and blue shadows,

yet a day

without grief

carved across

all thoughts,

I would be out

there, in the light,

and the glittering snow,

in the blue shadows;

but on a day like this,

marked by sorrows

and darker shadows,

I'm in the gloom inside.

17.O3.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Verse

JUSSI

 A sick,

old cat

bathing

in sunlight

among books

on the

raggedy

kitchen table.

16.O3.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Verse 

'JUST' A CAT, AND STILL...

1  

Worrying about an old cat,

sick for the tenth day now,

and then I see a social media friend

posting a photo of her husband's

old hat, like the one

I gave you,

with a feather in this one,

and a message

about calling

the funeral home.

2

Shaken,

I still can't accept

that the cat

sleeping in March sunlight

will be gone,

like we all will,

and I'm bargaining

with Fate

about all the things

I will do

if he lives

a bit longer.

14.O3.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Verse

GEOGRAPHY DECIDES WHICH LIVES ARE WORTH SAVING

 If we would have drawn

the border of Europe

west of Dniepr,

there would not be

this kind of fuss,

no alarm,

no sanctions,

just the usual

"deploring".

14.O3.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Verse

THE PANDEMIC NOW

Twenty million dead.

20 000 000 000.

And now they,

the politicians

and the pundits

and the journalists,

speak of

"adapting to the new normal" -

of

accepting

mass death,

endlessly,

because,

"the economy".

12.O3.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

DUSK IN MID-MARCH

A long winter day

burning red

among the ashes

of shadows.

14.O3.2022

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BUT YOU SHOULDN'T GIVE UP

 All hope

is false,

only despair

is real,

but that, too,

ends with life.

12.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

A SUNNY AFTERNOON IN MID-MARCH

An afternoon of light,

of pale blue skies,

white snows from wood

to village across fields,

and in a month,

all the snows

will be the sound

of running brooks.

12.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

BEYOND THIS HORIZON

 1

In the end, everything

ends

in a failure,

even the universe.

2

There are no victories,

only defeats

delayed.

There are no successes

that carry beyond death,

of mortal beings,

mortal civilizations,

mortal universes.

3

Those who celebrate

their achievements

by writing them on clay

and stone, and send

into space on radiowaves,

are writing on void

for minds made of dust.

12.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

A MORNING IN JUNE

A rainy summer morning,

a pot of old coffee to wash

past the decaying teeth,

and some words to scatter

on the computer screen,

before the nightmare thoughts

weave into a rotting womb,

and the beloved dead,

with their presence, remind

why that is just.

13.06.2021-11.03.2022

BECAUSE ONE GENDER KNOWS BETTER

Outside Hollywood movies,

and stories written by men,

few woman have ever claimed

that when men say "No"

to their advances,

they really mean "Yes".

09.03.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poem #Poems

THE 'STALINIST' CULTURAL SCENE SCENE OF ~1970

All you needed to be famous

was to be a teenage pen pal

to a renowned fascist poet

writing cantos in Venice.

20.08.2020-09.03.2022

CARLOTTA CHABERT

How strange that

mere paint on a canvas

evokes in us lust towards flesh

that has been bones and dust

since the time of our faceless

great-great-grandparents;

yet, it's only Hayes' Venus

that evokes our desire,

Palagi's Diana brings

only dysfunction.

UKRAINE DOESN'T MATTER

If Burma doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Chechnya doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If East Turkestan doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Kashmir doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Palestine doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Tibet doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If West Papua doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Western Sahara doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

If Yemen doesn't matter,

Ukraine doesn't matter.

07.-17.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TO THOSE BORN BEFORE ~1982

We should ask where

were all the people

now aghast of Ukraine,

those who rage against

the Russian tricoleur

flying above Kherson,

when the same flag flew

on invading tanks

in Georgia and Chechnya

and above the ruins

of blasted Grozny,

and they were dumb?

07.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

DESIRE

 Desire

is a terrible master,

and even a worse servant,

for ever will it try to become

the master.

But what is a life

without desire, its fullfillment,

and the picking of bitter fruits

of all-consuming passion

from the ashes?

07.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE DEATH OF MAKILON TABUNI(12)

 If only Makilon Tabuni,

aged twelve,

would have been beaten to death

by Russian soldiers

in Ukraine...

Then his young life,

and his terrible death,

would have mattered -

but, alas,

he was beaten to death

by Indonesian soldiers

in West Papua,

where the war and occupation

has gone on for only 59 years,

instead of a week,

and only hundreds of thousands

have died at the hands of occupiers,

instead of a thousand.

06.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

WHEN JOURNALISTS, POLITICIANS AND PUNDITS EMBRACE BDS

"It's wrong to single Israel out"

- folks are now

"It's right to single Russia out"

- folks, ardent

supporters of boycott and sanctions,

but only against a single state...

06.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

WHAT THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE HAS CAUSED

Journalists,

who have spent decades

justifying the killing youths

for throwing Molotov cocktails

at occupation forces,

now write instructions

how to make Molotov cocktails

and show the most

vulnerable positions

on military vehicles

for them.

06.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

IT WAS ALWAYS TOO LATE

Too late, always

too late,

from the first

moment

on this globe,

spinning away

into the great

darkness.

04.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE SHORELESS OCEAN

Adrift in time,

far from the shipwrecks

of our lives,

the graves

they left on

the long-lost shores,

still in our

leaking lifeboat,

in the darkening blue.

04.03.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse