THE FATE THAT REDEEMS NOTHING, FOR ALL IS BEYOND SAVING

To PRC 

When I had you betrayed,

and turned all your dreams to dust,

in despair you foretold my fate:

"May you live a lonely life and

may you die alone."

In my heart I then knew

it would be true; all the years

before me I saw open desolate

and bleak, and so it is;

I live alone, and growing old,

know I will die a lonely death,

and long will I lie dead

before my corpse be found.

04.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TRYING TO GET WHAT I COULD NOT GAIN

All that I had

I threw away,

and ever longed

for what I so

trashed.

03.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

O MAIDEN FAIR

 To PRC

O maiden fair,

betrayed you were;

all your fluttering hopes,

all your shining dreams,

crushed by the

careless hand

which these

lines etches.

Be that one day

you would stand

on my grave,

healthy and fair,

and would get

to curse the soil

that such wretched

bones hides.

03.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR

To Francois Villon(1431- c.1463)

1

Cold sleeps the land

under a thin blanket of white;

the snows of gone years

are here as a veil

over the singer's grave

beside the rotting gallows.

2

Cold is the earth under you,

cold is the soil whose weight

your vanishing form carries,

but the snows that melted

are here again, and on

a gray spring morn

they shall your house

of clay into mud turn

around your very bones.

3

Cold sleeps the land,

but colder still

is your sleep,

under the burial veil

of the snows of yesteryear.

03.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

UNTIL I AM AS YOU ARE

You are silence

and absence,

and thus present

as a wound,

carved through

my existence.

03.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

BEYOND THE HORIZON OF TIME

In time's undulating

landscape, we are already

dust under unborn feet,

and all our works

ashes in long cold

bonfires.

02.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

FOR ME

Regret comes only

when it can heal

nothing,

when all is ashes

and dust and bones

of crushed dreams,

an empty gesture

of lacerating

the mind.

02.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

SUMMER TWILIGHT

The evening, in all its warmth,

lies down to rest in the shadows

rising, merging,

deepening so slowly into night;

like departing from life, one

awaits the cool hours

under dim suns,

the final silver moment when

all flows into silence

and the night.

24.07.-02.12.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

#WISHFORALAA II

For the thousands killed, for the tens of thousands imprisoned, for the one hundred million oppressed, give justice, give liberty, give freedom, Free Alaa, Free Egypt!

16.11.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

#WISHFORALAA I

That the caged will be free, together, prisoner and nation.

16.11.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

THE COSMIC SPHINX

The cosmos is a sphinx,

and there is no Oedipus

smart enough

to open the path

to deepest knowledge

past its guardian stare.

15.11.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

EUROPA

The deep abyss

beneath darker than space,

and above the ten-kilometer

weight of the ice shell,

slowly the great planet turns.

03.04.-15.11.2022

#Poem #Poetry #Poems #Verse

ON THE EDGE OF TIME

It's a folly to dread the future,

it's a folly to lament the past,

the latter is gone beyond fixing,

the former the past is becoming.

There only one thing is to do

for you on the edge of time:

Live, and let the past in you live,

unmourned, cherished,

until you the past become,

unmourned and cherished.

15.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

TURNED TO DUST

Let it go,

let it go,

it has gone

already,

gone in flesh,

gone in flesh

and in hope

extinguished,

you are just

holding into a phantom,

holding into a phantom

of a dream turned dust,

let it go,

let it go,

let it rise

to light

as you

sink.

14.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

AWAY

 Away, in the darkness,

away from the night

into night.

Away, in darkness,

away, from night

to night.

14.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

JET STREAM

 Such bright days,

such warm days,

yet the wind

remembers

it's late autumn,

and comes in fury

all through day and night,

bends the trees,

scatters the last leaves

on brown earth,

chill winds

which cut to the bone

as your eyes & mind

bath in drenching

sunlight, moonlight.

13.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

SEASON OF DYING

Late is the hour,

brief the time

until midnight chimes,

and the waning Moon

in the crown dies,

as dies the season,

in grief entangled, in woe,

and the rotten branches

a deathbed make.

09.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

LUNAR SOLITUDE

The lunar seas

reflecting

in mind,

long cooled magma

crushed into

regolith.

09.-10.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

IS

 Life is

over.

10.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

THE END

There will

be no time

to slowly

savour

what is

being lost,

no prolonged

goodbyes.

All will

end in one moment

of regretful words

piercing your being.

Suddenly,

what was

is gone,

an open

grave

across existence,

waiting the funeral

of life that was.

09.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse 

AS THE END CREDITS ROLL

At the end,

there is only

that,

the end -

an unpenetrable

wall

of sheer dark

beyond time,

existence.

09.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THE MOUTH IS SHUT FOR EVER

An end to the songs,

and an end to

the singer,

yet the silence

carries songs

more powerful

than those

you sang,

now silent.

08.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THE LAURELS ARE ON OTHER BROWS THAN THINE

You were never set to

see it to the end, never

to gain the laurels,

the reward that is

knowing that all

in life is in perfect

state of completion,

standing on the still

shore of the uncrossable ocean

knowing there are no places

to reach and all days will be one;

no, always you were set to be

hurriedly left in that shallow

ditch, in the gloom

of the ageless November

as cold gripped the

land, with that cover

of frost-touched leaves

gathering falling snow;

always now on the way to

that great, glorious goal

reserved for others,

who stream by

your final

silence.

05.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TO ROSA LIKSOM

 1

It was ok

to 'abandon Russians'

for over twenty years

to Putin's regime

until the war in

Ukraine,

so why should

it be wrong now?

No war in

Ukraine,

and no need

to save

Russians

from Putin,

am I correct?

2

Always beware

people who think

that those who

follow leaders

whose geopolitics

have now collided

with ours,

are in need

of being 'saved'

more than

we are.

Collaborators

are not

victims

in distress.

They are

the root

whose crown

the ruler is.

3

When you

and Netanyahu

are on the same side,

it's time to think

whether you

should be

involved.

Or do you

propose

a grand mission

to save Netanyahu's

own voters

from him?

As his victims

are clearly

below saving

to people

like you.

05.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

A POOR COUSIN TO SUMMER DAWN

A grim sort of morning,

overcast, exactly zero degrees

outside at 08.33.

But can you call

this slow emergence

of the landscape

from darkness

to gray, dim light

a morning?

You certainly

can't call it

a dawn.

But, technically,

it must be given

the courtesy

of being

considered a morning,

as much as a summer dawn,

just like

this existence

must be considered,

for lack

of a better term,

being alive.

05.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

ALWAYS MORE WORDS

There is little reason for words, now;

little excuse. The time of words

is over, and earlier, I presume,

than I, always late, noticed.

The words have bolted,

the words are dead,

denied resurrection.

Yet, here are words

to mark the passing

of words.

05.11.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THERE WAS A TIME AND IS NO MORE

There was a time,

long years,

when I dreamed

of staying for

ever;

long years,

long years ago,

when I longed

to live and live;

long years.

Now, if

and when I go,

I will go with

little regret,

little regret

and none

of it for me;

all of it for you

who slipped from

my hands,

slipped from

my hands

and fell into death,

fell and were gone,

gone forever.

31.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

IN DYING OCTOBER

No landscape

should be as beautiful

as this one is,

blue skies

and golden light

on towering evergreens,

when so many

good and kind minds

are as cold as

the frozen earth,

which heavily upon

them rests.

31.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

BETTER DARKNESS THAN THE DYING OF THE LIGHT

It's days since I last

saw the light of day,

and I have no wish

to see it again.

Better to live in darkness,

better to shun the pale light,

the brief hours between

the dawn and the dusk,

than to see the cold world

awash with faded gold

and then waning in red fire

into the starless void.

28.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

MOST PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY

 Most people in this country

know very little

about the world.

Try to talk to them

about what goes on

and they first become dismissive

and then angry.

Most people in this country

want to know very little

about the world.

Try to talk to them

about what they don't know

and they first become dismissive

and then angry.

Most people in this country

want to curl up in a fetal position

and suck their thumb.

Try to talk to them

so that they would get up

and they first become dismissive

and then angry.

26.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

BUT I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE HEATING ON

Sound of rain

on the rusted roof,

a blessed sound

for all in

this late October -

a warm night,

a blessed night,

in these days,

telling

of  lower

heating bills

with each sound.

26.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

EDWARD II SLAVA UKRAINI

Ram Ukraine

through the assholes

of all the people

crying about it

after decades

of supporting

other invasions,

other occupations.

26.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TO MY FORMER RIGHTWING SWEDISH TEACHER, WHO DIED AT 65, ABOUT FOUR YEARS TOO LATE

Too often our lives

become mistakes

made by people

who never have to

pay for making them,

pay for the pain

we go to inflict

on others, the mistakes

we make

out of others' lives;

they live happily,

they die content.

26.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

LOOKING FOR A COMFORTING LIE, TO LAST FOR THE REST OF LIFE

It matters not, this life,

after the last breath has

been exhaled;

yet it would

make all the difference,

before the end,

if we could

lie convincingly

that it does.

01.05.-25.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

THERE ARE NO DREAMS WORTH BEING DISAPPOINTED

Don't dream.

Just don't.

Literally

and figuratively.

Just sleep

and live,

eyes wide open,

until they close them

in the end which

no dream can defer.

25.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

LONELINESS

Such lonesome path

to this moment in time,

cold like a frozen tear,

such a lonesome path

marked by the victims'

graves.

25.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

SOLE JUSTIFICATION

In that same decade, H.D. wrote three novels dealing

with same-sex desire; she published none of them. 

Charlie Tyson: H.D.’s Art of Failure(2022).

A great author who doesn't publish

is like a great lover who never

seduces, never makes love -

utterly useless.

The sole justification for their

existence is in their art,

whether that of flesh,

or of printed words.

A great author who doesn't

publish is like a great lover

who only masturbates -

utterly useless.

24.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TARA(2010-2022)

  To my friend Tara, February 2010 - October 21st 2022.

You who were happy

and kind, you who

were loving and loyal,

you who never hurt

anyone, not even a cat,

through all your

almost thirteen years,

you are dead and I,

I cry for you

like I cried for my parents,

for you, like them,

were kind and loving,

and deserved all the

years of the world

to come.

21.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TARA

 I would have gladly

let people die

so that you could

have lived

for another day,

my beautiful,

beloved friend.

For you were

kind and intelligent,

wise in your canine way,

and so many human beings

are not kind,

intelligent, wise -

or humane at all.

Politicians and generals,

captains of industry,

hedge fund managers,

and social media influencers

I would have let die

so that you could

have lived for

one more day.

21.-22..10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TARA

I will never

forget you,

but the world

will forget

us both.

19.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

SUBMERGED

The landscape brightens with strong

brush strokes; sunlight embraces

the sunken trees standing bare

at the bottom of the atmosphere;

with outreached arms, caught in the

currents of the autumn winds,

they pleaded the distant stars

and at present the Sol has come.

18.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TO TARA

The aspens along the streets

bring dreamlike light

into the gloom of the late

October afternoon;

thousands upon thousands

of small lanters burning

brightly on boughs

as I walk away

from your coming

 death.

18.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

FOR TARA

On the farther edge

of autumn,

on the edge of

death,

each breath

existence,

each breath

a pain -

death in the

flesh, in the

autumn air

death, yet

for these

last, final days,

life, and still

a tail held up.

17.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

TARA

Autumn colours,

morning sunshine,

gilded orange

on boughs and

frosted ground.

Deep dread,

frost of a kind,

lays cold

on my mind

for an old friend.

07.10.2022

#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse