-
gently disintegrate me
softly fragment me
going to the river
washing my shirt
listening to Krishnamurti
on love
mine own shirt
born in it, alone and in a
State of Inquiry
tenderly tearing it apart with time
rinsing and sieving soap
panning with cotton
burying in the stream
season after season after season
softly collapses me
the river there
with or without
my shirt or me washing
listening to his voice of tones again
asking me how I see the colours of an evensong sky
in the water
traveling eye, on the other bank
love has no opposite
easily undoes me
a fat river shares
indiscriminately
washing my shirt in wonder only
when he said
and what do you do when you don’t know what to do?
you do nothing, do nothing, nothing, no
my shirt ‘n me flowing
now gently
d i s I n t e g r a t i n g
-
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Rosa the foxfinch
Fidel the faithful parrot
Ernesto the Crocoduck
POEMS AND OTHER PIECES, published under pseudonyms --- Send your offerings to THIS ADDRESS FOR CONSIDERATION --- zephotherstuff@gmail.com
OTHERSTUFF MASCOTS
Rosa the foxfinch
Other Sites
OtherStuff Mascots
Fidel the faithful parrot
Revisit earlier otherstuff easily here:
- 10 or less (9)
- 50 word stories (15)
- 50 word/Food (10)
- About Animals (4)
- Beyond the Pale (10)
- Bluedaddy (1)
- Books (3)
- Cake (1)
- Captain Ned (1)
- Captions (16)
- DoctorShoot (12)
- Dogs (1)
- Duncan23 (1)
- Ebren (4)
- Eggs (1)
- Elephants (5)
- Everything Else (6)
- Favourite Places (5)
- Festive Items (12)
- File (51)
- Guitougoal (9)
- Haikus (14)
- Henry Moon (1)
- i-ku (42)
- Mac Millings (4)
- Marcela Mora y Araujo (1)
- Melton Mowbray (1)
- Meltonian (2)
- Merchandise (1)
- Mimitig (42)
- Mishari Aladwani (1)
- MouthoftheMersey (5)
- Mrs Offside (4)
- Munni (6)
- OffsideinTahiti (11)
- Opinion (3)
- Paddleman (7)
- Pastagobbler (2)
- Pinkerbell (5)
- Ringo37 (5)
- Rules and Instructions (7)
- Tony Parker (2)
- TonyEllis (5)
- Warnings (5)
- Where I Am (13)
- Winter Count (2)
- Wordles (7)
- Zephirine (50)
OtherStuff Mascots
Ernesto the Crocoduck
48 comments:
This started off from a GU poetry workshop which asked for poems beginning with first lines by the Scottish poet WS Graham, so the first line is a quote from him.... but I asked File to put his poem here on Other Stuff because I like it so much.
file
love the way you weave linear and spatial opposites into the fabric...
if I didn't know you are in Thailand I woiuld have said this was wrtten in a Ganges pensionne...
thanks zeph, but hardly the dramatic epic the GU poet wanted!
thanks doc, your soapy moments have frothed over everywhere!
It took me a while to understand this poem (I usually read things too fast) and now I just love it, it's dreamy and haunting and there definitely ought to be a sitar in the background somewhere....
One day some earnest PhD student will be writing about The Shirt Motif in the Early Poetical Works of File.
Indeed, lovely couterpoint to Doc's laundry basket.
If you sit by the river long enough, the body of your enemy will float by, eventually.*
*(from "Offside's little book of useless proverbs, most of which are probably Eastern but, when in doubt, claim they are Tahitian, no one will contradict you")
[walks away singing softly,
"I come from down in the valley..."]
Folks
have been absent more than here recently due to ending my time in public service employ and restarting my parked website business and so much detail to attend to it's like another life...
another story,
anyhow, back soon, but am here and reading and enjoying every day...
"And who shall wear the starry crown
Good Lord, show me the way..."
As a man of many lives, Doc, you'll no doubt settle quickly into the next one...Hope you'll have more time for your own writing now.
thanks offie, lots of good reasons to sit by a river or a lake or an ocean hein?
good luck in your new practice doc
Seth, PhD students? Of Linguistic Criminology?
I used to sing this to Little Offspring when she was a wee babe. I'm glad the social services didn't hear about that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWQV7agBFtE
None of that Baa Baa Black Sheep rubbish for you, eh Offie?
Ah, Bruce... a simple street troubadour with XXX million bucks in the bank....
Great song though.
was that Springtein or Lee?
was that Springstein or Lee?
No, B Lee was a simple street fighter with xxx million etc etc.
Sorry, File, forgot you're not allowed youtube where you are.. Offie's clip was B Springsteen singing The River in a street in Copenhagen.
ah, the river down Thunder Road
This poem needs a lot of hard thinking, but I'm wondering how the Doc, the master, knows how clearly to see into my soul? Hey? That's a wonder. It is a pander,how they were dancing last night? I've not even washed my laundary here, no soapy moments, but all is somehow revealed.
File,
now you're talking. Simple and poetic.
You are so alone with your desires for perfection and
a very nice shirt naturally..
Well, mimi, he ain't called "The Doc" for nothin', you know. I'm sure he knows that place where Thunder Road crosses Memory Lane.
"The screen door slams,
Mimi's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only... "
thanks Guitou, hey mimi
one of the best songs of all time and Offie has just made it yours Mimi you lucky girl, it just doesn't get much better than this:
You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these
streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now...
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road...
I could go on but I'm gonna have to fin' it an' listen to it now, as Guitou says 'simple and poetic', go offie, mimi and go boss
...the deletion was 'cos I got the words wrong! doh!
flamenco
un poquito de Chambao con Bebe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CIfRdoDg0U
Mm, great clip, Anon!
anonymously, i thought you may like it.anymously because i didn't think it was the appropriate place.
Well, it is File's thread and he isn't allowed youtube because of the King of Thailand, but I'm sure he'll forgive us :)
Offy, File: I'll never listen to Springsteen in the same way again. So kind.
Doc: I am wracking my brain about the "starry crown" line in your comment. I can hear a voice singing but can't place it. Must be from the 70s. Think it's something I have on reel-to-reel not vinyl, so a nightmare to try and find, but I can hear it: And I shall wear that starry crown .... but can't think of the rest. Grrr!
And BTW file: brilliant poem, and hope GU know how lucky they are to have you contributing.
Guitou will be given a fair hearing
thanks mimi
Mimi, the starry crown is from a hymn, isn't it? 'I went down to the river to pray'? And Paul Simon quotes it in Take Me to the Mardi Gras, which might be what you're thinking of.
down to the river to pray, Alison Kraus? o'brother soundtrack.?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt90S3z3qFU
don't think so.
yes mimi
a hymn
widely referred to e.g.paul simon under african skies wth miriam makeba...
best version the simple one by the unrelated old flat picking bluegrass hillbilly doc watson...
file
simplicity with edge, sung under a tree at this playful cafe across the virtual river...
I keep seeing your shirt as the colour white,
white though I feel it was once purple...
Zeph: you are a genius - as are all the rest of you, but yes, the words I hear singing about the "starry crown" come from Paul Simon. Oh, this is a wondrous place. Had a bit of a listen to Thunder Road and gosh, feeling even more flattered now. Wafting through my rooms in my CB pyjamas, I feel I should waft in a far more rock and roll way. Shame it's so cold here!
doc, only ever off-white but with purple patches!
mimi, I know I'm thick but CB pyjama's?
Chelsea Blue pyjama's?
Citizens Band pyjama's?
Castle Building Pyjama's?
Country Bumpkin?
Closet Burrito?
Clarified Butter?
Chiffon Bell-bottomed?
Clearly Badgirl pyjama's
guitou, cuddly badgirl pyjama's?
cuddly, correct, thanks for helping me file-
But you may want to ckeck out la mimi with her vinyl
on riding her bike...
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_80ii73dfQ
Lads,
it's Crème Brûlée Pyjamas.
They're edible, you see. In a sweet, messy kind of way.
Get it on.
I like chiffon bell-bottomed pyjamas! Reminds me of my fondness (and constant defence) of the Bell-boy. Sadly nothing so exotic, and I forgot you lot don't do OBO so had missed earlier references to my Commonwealth Bank series specially purchased warm winter pyjamas. That's how cold it was last night - in August. I had to wear garb bought in the bleak mid-winter.
And while File disintegrates, I'll levitate. Levitate me is a line that came to me as I read this poem.
I don't know how we will move into the winter's darkness, but sitting enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the lovely things I read here, I may, just, survive the darkness.
In the depths of the fimbulwinter, with Serena Place hovering, I shall come here to this Salon of talent, and remember sun, warmth and fine days.
it is a bit sad that you have to wear your cheese 'n biscuit pyjama's in August Mims, makes me question our own wisdom re the frozen wastelands of Canadia, I've started feeling cold already and we're still in 30 degrees here, shiver
"Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver."
Gilles Vignault, poète québécois.
groan, thanks offie
Forget all the talk, there is something about this poem that keeps bringing me back. File: you've done this before - your words echo emotions and feelings. I'm so glad I have the chance to come here and read. Disintegrate, the start of so much that may happen. Keep writing for us, please.
that's great Mimi, all of us together are creating a really interesting collection
file,
drinking Guiness and Brandy cocktails between assignments right?
No - isn't it coming back here when your head needs a bit of time to think clearly, and there are words, such words, that just are....
Jiddu Krishnamurti;
“There are three monks, who had been sitting in deep meditation for many years amidst the Himalayan snow peaks, never speaking a word, in utter silence. One morning, one of the three suddenly speaks up and says, ‘What a lovely morning this is.’ And he falls silent again. Five years of silence pass, when all at once the second monk speaks up and says, ‘But we could do with some rain.’ There is silence among them for another five years, when suddenly the third monk says, ‘Why can’t you two stop chattering?”
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/kr/jokes.html
http://seaunaluzparaustedmismo.blogspot.com/
Hi Guzman,
great story, as JK said 'reality is the interval between two thoughts'
thanks for the links, love the jokes list
Post a Comment