27

Terolle

27 years since,

and you lived

27 years.

31.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

CO2

Do you know what will

make good "plant food",

climate change -deniers?

A billion dead human beings,

killed by Global Warming

and the greed of the rich,

decomposing.

31.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND FOURTIETH DAY OF THE YEAR

Still, until no longer,

this play in an empty

theater, to an audience

of betrayed ghosts.

31.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

AFTER BASHÕ

1

Autumn, midnight,

rain ceases, yet

the clouds stay.

2

Autumnal midnight,

rain ceases, for a moment;

stars still shrouded.

29.-30.08.2023

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UNTIL NOTHING

Sand running between

fingers, everything

you ever did flowing

away, until nothing.

30.08.2023

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YET, ILL WORDS OF MY OWN HAVE STUNG OTHERS DEEPER

Shall there be a fourth Yeats

this night, for half a dozen

or less to read? 

"Haven't they all

been translated already?"

I will remember that

to my dying day

and no longer.

30.08.2023

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THE JOY YOU FEEL IS ILLUSORY

A third Yeats lowers its flag,

surrender complete, if not

perfectly achieved; imagine

life now if this is what

you would have set to do

all those years ago, when

you first erred and led

others astray in your wake?

30.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-NINTH DAY OF THE YEAR

The walls of two forts of Yeats

breached in one night, and

the night is still young -

old I may be, but if a third

won't fall, why I am still

on this darkling Earth?

30.08.2023

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FINALLY THE FOOL UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY HAD DROPPED FROM THEIR HANDS

To PRC 

Friendship came first, then lust,

and only when I had lost you

did I realise that I truly loved

you; that from beyond every

base thought and act I had

grasped a thing of greater

beauty, whose lasting value

I saw only after all the mud

of fleshy passion had been

cleaned away with the stained

cloth of our bitter loss.

29.-30.08.2023

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IN THE FLICKERING LIGHT OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I take the coffee pot, carry it

into the living, among vestiges

of lives, sit down before

the laptop, pour a mug full

with the liquid of extrapanel

night, put on music and

start translating some

elderly Yeats, as why not?

The night is here, so

might well have

some flickering light.

29.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-EIGHT DAY OF THE YEAR

I had once pretensions,

now only I have excuses

and memories buried

like loved corpses.

29.08.2023

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FOR ONCE, THINK WHAT YOU CAN STILL DO FOR THEM

All your days have you wasted,

and they were yours to lose,

but remember the people

who went beside you, and

slept beside you, and whose

days you have wasted,

those days that were

not yours to lose?

Remember them, in

their graves and solitude,

remember them, their days

and dreams you wasted.

28.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-SEVENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

The incessant rain keeps

beating on the roof as

the minutes keep ticking

away, the day I slept dying,

its unlived hours sent

to rest among forgotten

days, unkempt graves

of memories, forged

with a failing hand

when the future was

to be made - and was

made, into this.

28.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-SIXTH DAY OF THE YEAR

Regret, nothing

but regret,

but when has regret

done anything?

Except, to beget

more regret,

as the days and

years slip away.

27.08.2023

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SILENCE BEFORE THE INEVITABLE IS WISDOM

Proteus refuses to

reveal the future, and

why would he? It

is, waiting there,

and will be, and

knowledge will

not change it,

nor despair that

knowledge begets

in the yearning mind

and body struggling

to keep hold of the

changing sea-god.

26.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-FIFTH DAY OF THE YEAR

They are firing fireworks,

who knows why; I certainly

don't, and care little

of the brief lights flaring

up in the dark autumn

sky, like lives being lost.

Darkness takes over,

and in tomorrow's dim

light, the wooden sticks

and their burned heads

will lay there, among dying

grass and weeds, forlorn.

26.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-FOURTH DAY OF THE YEAR

Existing

between four darknesses -

the one before birth,

the one after death,

the one external,

the one internal -

at least keep the last

as small as you can.

25.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-THIRD DAY OF THE YEAR

Distant thunder,

the heavenly bells

of eventide rumble.

24.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-SECOND DAY OF THE YEAR

Another day ending

at the gulf of night

and memory, deep

in the darkness,

from which mind

might trawl some

faint remnant on

future's dim days.

23.08.2023

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LIFE IS MEANT TO STING

What do we fear is life itself -

after it has stung our reaching,

grasping hand one time more

than we can bear; it still stings

and the hand quivers when you

try to put it forth, but believe

me, until all the leaves have

turned brown and fallen,

reach out with your good

hand until it stings as much.

22.-23.08.2023

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WHEN THE DUSK TURNS INTO NIGHT

The last milk carton, unopened,

had soured in the fridge, so

I welcome the night with

coffee as dark as the starless

black that will engulf

these thoughts flickering in

the candle-light of the mind.

22.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTY-FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

It's autumn. Yesterday's

ceaseless rain, today's

gloom - the summer

washed away, its gold

painted over, its green

dimmed. In the dark

of the late evening

I light a candle for

the summer that

has passed.

22.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THE OCCUPIERS

Throughout history

Those who spill the blood 

of others are always surprised

to witness their own blood

flowing; embracers of violence,

the sight of their own flesh

laying dead and wounded

makes them, proud killers,

hysterically cry "Revenge!

Thus, collective punishment;

weeping killers 'avenging' killings

to end killings of their own,

so that they can go on

killing in 'peace', as

their god(s) intended.

21.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND THIRTIETH DAY OF THE YEAR

(This, admittedly, is based on an original

misleading of the poem, but...)

Did you ever hear birds whir from the weeds

while being sober, Mr Frost? (The birds,

not you, Mr Frost. Perhaps you wrote

this one after a drink or twelve too many.)

No, I don't think you heard. Because birds

don't really whir in the weeds - we are

not talking about insects here - while

being calm or solemnly coloured,

or not having been at your bottle.

So why, oh why did you have to make

them whir there in their nonintoxicated,

calm bearing and dull colours, instead

of them chirping (or singing) while being

something nailed down with meaning?

My suddenly exasperated night would be

easier if I wouldn't have to mow a path

out of your labyrinth, saving lyrical

(non-ridiculous) meaning from your little

temperance minotaurs whirring in the weeds.

Mr Frost, perhaps I need whatever

you were drinking when you heard

the sober birds whir from the weeds.

21.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-NINTH DAY OF THE YEAR

At the end

we don't

give up

the world,

the world

let's go

of us,

allows

the swift

waters of Lethe

carry us

away.

20.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-EIGHT DAY OF THE YEAR

Days, in their

abundance,

wasted

like stars on

the autumn sky.

19.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

So much of life is about

fear: Fear of not gaining,

fear of not keeping,

fear of losing,

instead of achieving,

possessing and enjoying.

You will lose it,

and fear will only

hasten the moment,

so first lose the fear.

18.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-SIXTH DAY OF THE YEAR

What are you, human

being? An immortal soul

trapped in sinful flesh?

No, just thoughts and

memories stored in

a mortal brain,

a swirling vortex

from which emerges

what you recognize

as 'you' -

ever-shifting until end

of its days, regenerating

while claiming illusion

of its continuity.

17.08.2023

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ONE THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF THE YEAR

Atheism didn't use to mean people

who deny the existence of god or gods

(they were so rare, the real deniers of the divine),

but who declared the disinterest of these beings

towards humanity and individual humans.

Our modern entertainment industry, with

its gods and angels reduced to aiding

human beings in their so ordinary difficulties,

continues a very old tradition of comforting

the religious that supernatural beings

do care about them. It's a lie that cuts

the supernatural down into human size,

and tells the religious they are not

so different or farm from their gods.

16.-17.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF THE YEAR

The dying summer

falls to autumn's

lap, swooning.

15.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TRANSLATING THOMAS MCGRATH(1916-1990)

Babysitting a sick child, watching

Pokémon, and translating short

poems as daylight grows, wanes

behind the large window

of the living room and shadows

of potted plants wave across

the floor. This, too, is a sort of

quiet happiness that will

not stand the test of years.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

A FEAR

Smooth skin shivering

under touch with restless

anticipation, and trepidation

that what shall come

will not equal the first

electric moments

of skin against skin.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

THE FIRST CARESS

The summer land

shivers with anticipation

at the soft, caressing

first touch of autumn.

14.08.2023

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POETRY OF THE MIND

Happiness is a poem

written with emotions

across memories.

14.08.2023

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THE SWIFT YEARS

So long that lichen

now creeps up

the gravestone,

life on the memory

of a life.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

RESURRECTION

Light floods the back-yard,

dim dark green a moment ago

under milk-gray hanging clouds,

now bathed in soft golden hue

that resurrects the summer

from the gray hand of the fall.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

EARTH PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE SURFACE OF MARS

In the vast loneliness of the alien sky

the bright star encompasses everything

we hold dear; in that sparkle of light

exists everything we briefly capture

from the void and time.

24.03.2022-14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

TO A DEAD POET

I know you were a different man

behind your poems, in the life

that was real and is now dust,

and that you did terrible things,

and all the common wrongs

akin to our kind; yet, that man

is soil under the winter snows,

and the persona he begetted

with words, that one lives and

breaths and lacks the wrongs

that the man of bone and

dust carved across other lives.

30.12.2022-14.08.2023

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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Anderlecht should've gotten something

better out of this game against Bayern Münich

than a defeat; good chances wasted,

a careless off-side disallowing a goal,

a defence napping and giving gifts -

you know how it is, life:

Chances arise and are wasted

and when you hear the final whistle

you were just building up a good move.

24.11.2017-14.08.2023

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MAUI

In our era of media-driven idiocy,

the brainwashed declare that global

warming is a conspiracy and

energy weapon burned Hawaii,

because to them one fake image

on the web counts more than

a century of climate science.

A change from the bots crying

"Arson!", but just a different

chime from the bell tolling doom.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TWO DEATHS IN TWO DAYS

Death seems to come

with the fading of the summer,

leaves torn from the foliage

of the wood we inhabit,

distant moons of the planets

in our solar system broken

into disappearing rings, but

you know, in these times,

how suddenly, how close

it can strike.

14.08.2023

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

TO MY WIFE

To PRC

When you walked before

me, swaying unconsciously

seductively, I always wanted

to grab your delicious bottom,

but even a hand placed on

your shoulder suddenly

made you shiver, and

I resisted what would have,

in the truth of the too late

day, brought you into

my too shy grasp forever

when done with grace

equal to the movement

of your most beautiful

buttocks.

14.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-THIRD DAY OF THE YEAR

The month turns to autumn

in my senses, yet the leaves

are yet to grow bright in the

colours of the fall; the dark

green of the late summer

covers what the cool breeze

heralds - the coming of the

dim, crisp days of rain and

the unrobing of the land.

14.08.2023

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THE NEIGHBOUR PASSES

The medics in red act leisurely

after arrival, the young police

officers are in no hurry. Yet

there is little to do, and they

leave before the hearse arrives

to take away the deceased,

leaving them in the company

of their bereaved, behind

dark windows that conceal

their lonely death.

14.08.2023

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LONG AFTER THE SEAS ARE BUT DUST

The lunar seas

in the dark blue

reflecting

human fate,

long cooled magma

crushed into regolith.

10.11.2022-13.08.2023

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

BAISAÕ

Between handling property

deals for provincial aristocracy's

city mansions, Baisaõ liked

to cosplay a poor monk

living on the profits

of his tea-selling.

20.07.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF THE YEAR

After certain point in life,

it becomes a question of

not gaining or keeping

people and things, but

postponing losing them

- perhaps a few until you

lose yourself. That

becomes your victory.

13.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

Dark, the minutes before

midnight, in the cool, calm

air a hint of the autumn,

a crisp fragrance of

things being lost.

12.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTIETH DAY OF THE YEAR

Hope is gathered

from life's stream

with a cracked,

leaking vessel.

11.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND NINETEENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

 You wish it would

last. But the end

is already near,

waiting beyond

the next corner. It

will be a surprise

you anticipated.

10.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND EIGHTEENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

Walking in the golden

light of the late summer

day, August approaching

its middle, autumn and

the fall of our years,

yet this light endures

that has welcomed

since the earliest days.

09.08.2023

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ADAM HYMAS

"I had 67 followers, I paid Elon Musk $8.99 for a blue tick,

I knew how to copy single sentence Far-Right 'talking points',

and how to post laughing emojis to mock killed people.

I called myself Adam Hymas (not my real name, because

I was afraid that my family would find out.)"

21st century Spoon River.

06.08.2023

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ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND SEVENTEETH DAY OF THE YEAR

Yesterday, thirty degrees,

overwhelming heat, and

today much of that heat

lingers under overcast

skies as heavy winds blow;

this prevaricating landscape

caught between a hothouse

summer of the age to be

and the coming of

the autumn I loved.

08.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND SIXTEENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

You have failed

when the people

you care the most

are proud of

how little

they know

about the world

and care.

And then

they say

how they

have empathy.

07.-08.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE YEAR

The German Ambassador to Israel

tweeted about killings in occupied

West Bank's Burqa and Tel Aviv.

Notice the difference between

"killed by a Palestinian terrorist"

vs "killing... allegedly by settlers".

The life on an unarmed, occupied Palestinian

is always less worth than the life

on an armed Israeli in uniform,

& the killers

of the former must be given

the benefit of doubt...

06-08.08.2023

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse