Rilke as a boy

XXIX

Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath increases space.
In the woodwork of dark clockwork
let yourself resound.  That which weakens you

becomes a strength through this nourishment.
In the transformation go out and in.
What is your saddest experience?
Is drinking bitter?  Become wine.

Be in this night of weariness
magic at the intersection of your senses--
their selfsame meeting point.

And if the worldly forgets you,
to the still earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water say:  I am.

~translated from Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus

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Uploaded on August 1, 2007
by Pavlunka


A LITTLE CALLED KINGA

She lives as she lives and she lives and she is
And she is as and she is and as she is
She is wholly whole she is holy whole she is holy
And she and she and and she
She quotes quotable she lives fairly lives fairly well
And she loves all is all love is loved and loves well
She came by him by hum by human she came by
And she will as she will by will as she will
She flew up and flew by and flew out and over it
And she came by train as train has trains what was trains
She knew knowing too and knowing knowing who
And she what was she and she what was she she was she
She knew a little called Pauline a little called Pauline a little
And she wrote writing writ written she finished her poem.

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THE IMPERFECT SONNET
after Philip Whalen

"The person of whom you speak is a poet."

Where is the second crystal?

She left her garret with it in her satchel

Clack of heels on Prague's cobblestones

Now I want emeralds.

In the middle of the night—

The station lit with aqua lights

The hipster waits for the exchange

As a Louie Vuitton model

As Mikhail Baryshnikov

Say nothing of his scruffy cheeks

Nothing of his hooded eyes

A precious for the shisha

An emerald shisha!  From Casablanca—

Property of Moroccan ministers

The better crystal is upstairs.

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