{random poetry #128}


won’t you celebrate with me

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

Clifton, L. (1936-2010)


Every weakness contains within itself a strength.
Endō, S. (1923-1996)

{random poetry #127}


Time to Come

O, Death! a black and pierceless pall
Hangs round thee, and the future state;
No eye may see, no mind may grasp
That mystery of fate.

This brain, which now alternate throbs
With swelling hope and gloomy fear;
This heart, with all the changing hues,
That mortal passions bear—

This curious frame of human mould,
Where unrequited cravings play,
This brain, and heart, and wondrous form
Must all alike decay.

The leaping blood will stop its flow;
The hoarse death-struggle pass; the cheek
Lay bloomless, and the liquid tongue
Will then forget to speak.

The grave will take me; earth will close
O’er cold dull limbs and ashy face;
But where, O, Nature, where shall be
The soul’s abiding place?

Will it e’en live? For though its light
Must shine till from the body torn;
Then, when the oil of life is spent,
Still shall the taper burn?

O, powerless is this struggling brain
To rend the mighty mystery;
In dark, uncertain awe it waits

The common doom, to die.

Whitman, W. (1819-1892)




"When hit by boredom, let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom.
In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.

The idea here is to exact a full look at the worst.

The reason boredom deserves such scrutiny is that it represents
pure, undiluted time in all its repetitive, redundant, monotonous splendor.

 Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium.

It is your window on time's infinity.

Once this window opens, don't try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open."

Brodsky, J.(1940-1996)