“To see, we must forget the name of the things we are looking at”
- Quote by Claude Monet
* after 'Impression, soleil levant', painting by Claude Monet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
visible outdoors
to show the seen
blending smooth
colors, tones, light
shadows follow
reflecting angles
smoke rises
unobscured
beating hearts
wade used
brush strokes
mirrors mind
high orange
floats in water
fleeting calmness
holds gaze
dans le silence d'un soleil levant
je crois entendre des voix et soupirs
reconnaître de vieux sourires
dans le calme d'un matin sous givre
je crois voir de doux regards
en berçant doucement l'ange qui dort
sous une lumière tamisée
je crois sentir le doux parfum
d'un amour renoué en juin
Translated from my poem IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN
Through Garreg-Wen’s nomadic hearth, we grew
and waned like lichen’s stole on Moel-y-Gest.
Her lustrous tablet’s cleaved expanse possessed
our sacred streams. Where plasma sands, in lieu
of blood’s endured aspects – our angled view –
was figured, flawless: all we knew. North-West
Nirvana’s alien tongues recite the pest
of castle’s: tourist’s transient blight; so too,
ewe’s balk like doubtful dunes. Idyllic slants
in callow youth, discern, so seldom, tints
beyond the rosy realm of spectrum’s scant
surmise: stars, not blinkered by levant,
lost streetlights. Night’s insight may not imprint
the shape of time that teary-eyed stars grant.
Oscar Levant, American Author, Comedian, Music Composer and more,
Was born in the early 20th Century and died in the 1970’s
Each decade, or era has their comedians – below is one of Mr Levant’s quotes,
TWO BY TWO EQUALS FOUR
A young couple Clorrita and Dwaine,
Decided to spend a holiday in Spain,
Both vegans, enjoyed a good radish,
But either neither nor, spoke Spanish.
They carried masks, heard of an Epidemic,
The Spanish Flu could become Pandemic,
They lived in Europe on inland terrain,
So decided they would travel by train.
They asked for a sleeper for four,
The ticket officer asked, “Why Senor”,
“Well, there is me and I, and she,
And my wife, so four we are you see”.
They had never thought or planned,
People could not understand,
When they went out to dine,
“A table for four please, will be fine”.
Eventually returned home, all so relieved,
Even Clorrita and Dwaine heaved,
A sigh, people don’t do simple maths anymore,
Schizophrenics are two by two equals four!
“ROSES ARE RED VIOLETS ARE BLUE, I’M SCHIZOPHRENIC AND SO AM I”
Fortunately, medicine has advanced incredibly since the 1970’s.
The economy was booming, best for years
As for unemployment then: he had it beat
Feel-good factor lifted spirits dried our tears
Voted ‘gainst him cos I didn’t like his tweets
Yes he made the border strong secured the nation
Shut out drug mules with the Covid and wet feet
Slowed persistent fundamental transformation
Yet I still reject him cos he does mean tweets
When ISIS cut a swathe across Levant
He made destruction of their Caliphate complete
And silenced their polemics and their rant
But I disapproved cos I don’t like his tweets
Brought the vaccines to production at warp speed
Others gave thumbs down to aught laid at his feet
Now they seek enforcement even without need
And to him I give the elbow - don’t like tweets
Should he come again, restore the nation’s pride
After years of deprecating self defeat
Would I then come to accept what I denied?
Well perhaps - if he would only stop his tweets!
There's more than just size to the elephant,
they do do some things that the others can't.
Many stories show these acts as valiant;
in the wild, grand gestures seem elegant.
Their wisdom is "ear-ily" evident,
nothing too pithy or given to rant -
like wry witticisms from Oscar Levant.
Or, Ogden Nash whose stanzas are extant,
not the rhymes of some silly sycophant.
Pachyderms make empathy "rel-e-phant"!
tangerine sunrise~
oscillating reflections glow
like a sketch of your smile
at a glimpse of a new morn
a medley of indigo and carrot
as the sun floats in hazy sky
like the sparkle of your eyes
remembering first love
nebulous harbour at a distance
of steamships and shades
sailing in silhouettes
strumming my senses
like the way you hold me
as we waltz after dawn
06 March 2021
Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, soleil levant) is a painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris in April, 1874. The painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement. Impression, Sunrise depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown. It is now displayed at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. (Info credits to Wikipedia)
All Yours (March 6)
Sponsored by Briand Strand
1st place
There's the
Guy
In the corner
Strumming on his guitar
Singing of the
Good ol 2000's songs
Shaking his head
At the recent rap reps
The golden eyelet
Etched on
There's the emo girl
In all black
Tapping furiously
On her laptop
Emailing any
Cooperations
That would take her
Her sighs can
Be heard from the
Other side of the room
There's the dude
With the manbun
Tutting to the BGM
Muttering of
The Friday tiredness
Glasses hung low
On his eyes
The couple in the corner
Giggling ecstaticly
Sitting snugly
Sharing earphones
Gabbing
Of the dreams they seek for
Sweet high school
Innocence
Cigarettes burning out low
Feet out on the balcony
Overlooking
The sky full of stars
There's the salaryman
Sinking low into his
Wrinkled suit
Still in his twenties
Not wanting to go home
To sleep
And wake up to the
Same tedious routine
There's the girl
With the piercings
Smoking
Perfect rings
Lord of the rings
She smirks to herself
As she
Watches them
Slowly
Disappear
Into the air
Waiting to
See the
Soleil levant
Dripping of tequila
Keep
Actin like
Everything is the same
Yet
Everything is anything but
My world is turned
Upside down
I don't know
Into an optimal angle or a
Negative angle
Anymore
The pastel colors
Of the sky
Are getting
Blurred
Like Monet's
Impression
soleil levant
Felt like I was
Flying
From
The jump but now
I'm just floating
In midair
With sudden
Unpredictable
Drops
That
Plummets my heart down
Too
Got too much
On my mind now
On my heart now
Save a place for us
Please
Bae
When can we stop pretending
When we can't go back to the
When when we didn't know
When we wanted things the same
It's so hard
When the truth is out there
Letting it lay
Cold and bare
When it was
Breathtakingly
Beautiful
Waiting for a long time
We both
Wanted it
What is stopping us?
Falling apart
Am I not enough
Blurred undefined paint
In my heart
Still life
With my heart
Still beating
For him
A Refugee
He had been given a lift by a Lithuanian truck driver
to a little town in inland Norway where the winter
starts in September and is cold and unforgiven as its
inhabitants. The truck driver had given him money
for coffee, and cigarettes.
Not dressed for winter this swarthy unshaven Levant
perhaps Iraq, a flotsam from a war caused by black
stuff that came up from the earth and cursed them.
He walked into the railway station had a coffee but sat
So long a guard came and told him to leave.
In the waiting room, he felt strange, sweated needed air
went outside to cool down and collapsed, pneumonia and
lack of nutrition an ambulance arrived people gathered
Around, bloody refugees get everything for free someone
in the crowd murmured.
A Poet Drives a Truck
Transmit and reflect light with a steady glow.
Inspect the equipment routinely and thoroughly.
Explore alternate routes when feasible.
Let the eyes range over the land, the sky,
the near, the distant road, and the mysterious
peripheries.
Transcend rage and panic with humor and consideration.
Tell the truth especially when a brilliant lie
seems more appropriate.
Look flowers in the eyes.
Frisk about like a dog unbound.
Sniff the night perfume of trees.
Listen to the songs of birds.
Let them take wing in the breath and soar forth
to the moon.
Editors’ Note. This poem, from which this volume takes its name, was published circa 1999 in a newsletter published by Lowell’s employer at the time, titled “Still Manifesting.”
It never takes me
More than a wink of an eye
To travel from the Levant people
To the people of Minoa
Via yellow river, Norte Chico
Egypt, Harappa and Mesopotamia
I’d seen enough falls and rises
Like the ocean’s weaves
Embedded with few moment’s high tides
And receding low ebbs
While living in houses of Uruk and Memphis
I encountered with enough love and hate
To satisfy their basic instincts
Some went too low, some were too great
To preserve human development and progress.
In the course of my travelling
Through the great river Nile
Among the valleys of Euphrates and Tigris
I’d seen wonderful minds
In heaps of war, conspiracy, deception and lies
With multiple injuries
When I laid in the trenches of lust and greed
In the battle fields of Polynesia
I’d seen the indomitable human spirit
How it withheld the cruelties of Athenians and Spartans
And pushed forward the great human civilization
………………to be continued ……..
Darest Vicar –
Tell your kins: the monks
White-haired under a false piety
Their sermons under-nourished
Many of the young inmates
Of the huge monasteries!
Darest Vicar –
Where are those gentle levant monks?
Tell your bothers: the monks
Especially that notorious monk
Wearing a huge globe over blind eyes
Wearing a tower-hat on a bald head
The prodigal partition of our nurture
Remains the perdition of the forest!
Écoute bien. La musique t'invite,
Les mots fanent et le ciel se remplit d'étoiles,
Il dirige cette explosion de beauté instantanément, vite.
Et descend avec élégance,
Levant ces ailes et ces voiles.
Il te donne une chance.
Depuis des générations j'allume ces bougies,
Et depuis des générations les ombres m'encerclent.
Avec la lumière vient l’obscurité... l’agonie.
Mais maintenant j'embrasse une affinité,
Dans cette cellule maléfique j'ai trouvé un pinacle.
Et je danse passionnément pour l'infinité.
Alors, je t'implore,
Tu m'expulses et ça me fait mal.
Une fois encore,
Coincé dans une chambre de montres,
Je voudrais apprendre cette valse,
Instruis-moi La Valse Des Monstres
Pour que je puisse toujours
Danser dans la lumière !
Afloat ,in a small boat
a sudden levant arose,
each disciple in fear,froze;
A command-Peace ,be still--
The storm submitted to his will.
Full story of this vignette @Mark 4:35-41
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