amuse
03-24-2004, 03:59 PM
used an excerpt earlier for my sig: this is the complete poem.
from Let Those Who Appear, 2002
i posted it earlier on The Crossed Keys, so have included a bonus track for those of you who've read it.
THE TALE OF A CERTAIN FAIRY
A man - has a strange - clairvoyance - that finds a fairy
He lives in the woods - with his wife and seven cats - always
Simmering - something that can't be put into words
A delicious soup - no way to tell how it was mixed
There - many dead - become ghosts
Sobbing laughing with the sleepwalking souls of the living - sometimes
You can hear the song of the bubbling - coming from the soup
Where did you find - a joke - that good?
Where did you gather - the mushrooms? - quick, tell me!
If you don't - I'm not going to tell you the secret - of the game of chess
How is it that the man came to find a fairy - for that matter
It's as though a tape of the memory of history - was erased on purpose...
No one has ever gone near the swamp deep in the woods
Cats - sometimes - hear - the sound of
The fairies - continuing to wash the aprons of the dead fairies - on a day like that
The wife - takes a pleasant nap
The man takes out his eyeballs - and polishes them more carefully than usual
FROM THE PRECIOUS TEARS OF THE DONKEY
One day - I asked the donkey - where are
Your tears - she did not tell me
I went out - to Malacca
To meet the spirit of Malacca - but the moon shines
Fish and birds do not answer - sleep deeply
No one - knows where the spirit is
I too - sleep deeply
At dawn - a carpenter bird sings - Malacca - Malacca
If I were a tree, I would answer
Malacca's soul lives inside my seed
Because Malacca is the name of a tree
You don't have to know that
It doesn't necessarily have to be a tree
Moon or - bird or fish would be fine
Malacca's sand - is wet with the tears - of a thin sea shell
from Let Those Who Appear, 2002
i posted it earlier on The Crossed Keys, so have included a bonus track for those of you who've read it.
THE TALE OF A CERTAIN FAIRY
A man - has a strange - clairvoyance - that finds a fairy
He lives in the woods - with his wife and seven cats - always
Simmering - something that can't be put into words
A delicious soup - no way to tell how it was mixed
There - many dead - become ghosts
Sobbing laughing with the sleepwalking souls of the living - sometimes
You can hear the song of the bubbling - coming from the soup
Where did you find - a joke - that good?
Where did you gather - the mushrooms? - quick, tell me!
If you don't - I'm not going to tell you the secret - of the game of chess
How is it that the man came to find a fairy - for that matter
It's as though a tape of the memory of history - was erased on purpose...
No one has ever gone near the swamp deep in the woods
Cats - sometimes - hear - the sound of
The fairies - continuing to wash the aprons of the dead fairies - on a day like that
The wife - takes a pleasant nap
The man takes out his eyeballs - and polishes them more carefully than usual
FROM THE PRECIOUS TEARS OF THE DONKEY
One day - I asked the donkey - where are
Your tears - she did not tell me
I went out - to Malacca
To meet the spirit of Malacca - but the moon shines
Fish and birds do not answer - sleep deeply
No one - knows where the spirit is
I too - sleep deeply
At dawn - a carpenter bird sings - Malacca - Malacca
If I were a tree, I would answer
Malacca's soul lives inside my seed
Because Malacca is the name of a tree
You don't have to know that
It doesn't necessarily have to be a tree
Moon or - bird or fish would be fine
Malacca's sand - is wet with the tears - of a thin sea shell