Storm, hurricane, tempest, tornado, levantera, gale
Like shape-shifting werewolves and vampire wells, you whirlpool.
With gold, silver, and coal sand screens, the environs you veil
Like rounded, sub-rounded, mushroom-shaped mountains, you stand cool.
By building walls of dust and debris, you hold your head high.
In circular, curved, spherical, and ring-shaped rotations
Like Shanghai or Lotte, are you trying to touch the sky?
Have your roaring, drumming, and hissing themes got notations?
Burying seeds, ceasing seedlings, cutting crop reales
Moving particulate matters and microorganisms
Sparkling flashes of lightning and igniting thunder peals
You push humans and animals into a psychic spasm.
Amidst nature's many means of self-purification
You too have your participation in life transformation
There stood an old chest of mine
in the attic with empty bottles of wine,
covered by the woven nets of spiders
and layers of dust and darkness.
I unlocked it to reveal the treasure
and dusted out the darkness,
it contained memorabilia of my lost age.
I took out some toffee wrappers,
the ones cherished long ago,
Cadburys, Lotte, Nestle,
I once chewed them all endlessly......
Out popped a bunch of lolly sticks,
and a set of black paper clips,
beside them were lying my
carven pencils and inked papers.
And beneath them hid my
captured moments,
I pulled them one by one for
these moments forgotten long before.....
Inside the chest's lid
hung my colourful ribbon,
and there was a little mirror with
cute little stickers on its sides,
And all these stuffs made my childhood portentous....
No fears, little vulnerable heart!
Why do you hide?
Why do you hide behind the railings?
Why do you hide behind the railings of the golden cage when however the wicket is open?
When however the wicket is gone?
Shake off the shiver and open your big round eyes.
Just a second ago you jumped around, you flew!
Lightly as a butterfly.
Together with this elegant golden bird.
There! There outside over the fields of flowers.
Come! Come with me!
He is just sitting there, watching the sun.
He is strolling up and down in his mind forests.
Through the brush-wood he goes in swishing leaves collecting sunbeams.
You own them too, little heart, those mind forests with exotic blossoms and birds composing your inner melody.
Listen! See!
Do you see the tie?
The tie out of shimmering spidersilk?
It is you two, the bird and you!
Trust in the tie, it will carry you.
Open your deep saucer eyes and let them be the birds mirror.
He loves you during his walk through his own heart.
Don't be afraid of him, don't be afraid of your tears.
You will learn to trust your love, that blossoms and clears.
by Lotte
Lotte Lehmann (Sentanka)
Charlotte Lehmann
Die große Opernsängerin
Sie schrieb und filmte
Ihr Ruhm bleibt unvergessen
Und bot den Nazis die Stirn
Charlotte Lehmann
The great opera singer
She wrote and filmed
Her fame will always be remembered
And she defied the Nazis
Charlotte Lehmann
La gran vocalista de ópera
Ella escribió y filmó
Su fama siempre será recordado
Y desafió a los nazis
Note: Charlotte Lehman, known as Lotte Lehman, born in 1888 in Perleburg, Germany, and one of my relatives, was a famous opera singer in Europe and the USA. She emigrated from Vienna to the USA in 1937. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1934 to 1945. In 1951 she retired from public live and gave singing
instructions. One of her scholars was the well-known opera singer Grace Bumbry. Lotte Lehmann was also a writer and poetess and a filmmaker. She died in 1976 in Santa Barbara, California and was buried at the famous Vienna Central Cemetary in 1977.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.