Goodreads
del.icio.us
the fleeting wish
of/ what our fathers
did
&
didn't/
Rescue /
in
tune
w./
yr. aspiring
body
death & desire/
wind, the 'termas' / written
where, by whom, the
will
of
the
father/
Sex
suddenly,
speaking, poem. I was
the/
allegorical,
/ I was not
raised/
*
I gathered the
fresh, the scintillating. Mutant/
leaves.
_______
I loved
allegorically
&
deeply.
The falling / into sleep/
'Don't go'.
Auschwitz, wasn't/ I
discovered, the green wood.
Nothing between.
Ascension.
Do not destroy
*
The perfection of the
TOWER: A AA
We still made - love.
those trees
are
watching,
Feel & See, Undeniable bond, holding the
underwater diety as I become
YOU.
*
My memory is not the memory of the
scene, but a memory of the word.
g. perec
The impression of a luminosity/ so profound –
it
is
everywhere
&
nowhere/
A Rose
arose, fr. the
point
of
quietude
_________
…Of
my death,
nearer, I am
Nearer/
"the body gets more etheric"/ the lover,
his hair fallen/ on my, desire/
the wound, the cut,
"In the school of Rock"
of drone, shadow reader/
sought, epiphanies,
absolute/
presence/ O
Arise
wave, weep for the River
has conjoined/ salient/ solitary/
this
willful
'portrayal'
*****
On the day
of
the
dead/
traveling now, safe in the cosmos
"It's not good to be so pretty"
Absolved/ Jacques, the 'furrier'/ absolved/ Sarah,
absolved,
'deaf
&
mute'
'from which emerges'/ I can not / this
origin or/ O Father - O Mother- ' Set Sail' -
Unite thy House /
the
dream
of
the
house
of
Judah
*
Famine & dream
in the land of the Merciful/
MUSIC
Re/member/ the chord
_________
I
wished to give & silent to speak
of
his/
Buddha
nature
Or
theirs.
In the desert /Oasis -
1 or 2 birds/
a
note of pestilence
Rock Angel Goddess -
In the rain - They almost shot the Bastard/ I
forgot it all/
the stranger & the stranger's door.
*
Mothers/ all /Absolved/
The Mt. Peak/ the Sea of Faith/
the Rosen/ sepulcher//surrender/remain I,
sinner & servant /
in Jerusalem
*
& you get it when I come for you/ as I
listened to your
commentaries
on
the
scripture
of
dream
NYC 2003
for Charles Curtis
on hearing 'Just Charles in the Romantic Mode;'
by
La Monte Young
The Uvaysi Text
A contemporary of Mohammed/they had
communication on the astral level/ All followers
of Uvays received their teachings
in
dreams
***
I
I have told you that the metropolis
is
in
danger
I expect you to be my
witness when later I am discovered
in a desolate cavern/ unable to speak to
the birds who have gathered,
looking for the
repast
of
day.
Do not look for me.
I shall find you as I did on the island when
we were defined, neither by our street
numbers nor ornaments
but by a wind so subtle, only the most
delicate petal cld. perceive & then
transform
it.
You were transformed in the gentleness/ O
melodies I heard them as clearly
as those of the street players
who
at one time, animated the city
of
my
exile
I knew then that exile wld. be one day
homecoming, but I cld. not know that the
colors of the rainbow wld. do no harm to my
complexion// so
safe
&
subtle.
*
If I were to speak to you of Pythagoras,
or if Ibn Al Arabi wished to be heart
"the color of the water is the color of
the receptacle"
II
Do not ask me to keep secret our meetings
in Damascus or Baghdad/those which
occurred in the open
air of the fabulous
mandala./
It is not easy to find oneself
in this privileged territory/Indeed the
initiates are bewildered by the letters which
invites them, those letters of invitation,
written w. inks that appears
invisibly to the
sleeping & as golden ray to those who have
learned to look past
the
Paradigm
When
you appeared in was in grief & when you
parted your joyful elegance was something
I cld. not ignore,
'do the right thing'
'time in as invention'
not even in my wish to
remain/discrete, veiled / not w. tradition but
w. the power of my internal perception
of
you.
III
The metropolis is dangerous. I have explained
& no one will be spared the ascending flame. I
write to you
as shadow, yet in my shadow are the
filaments of a shattered dream
/ you wore splinters, gilded splinters on your
white cloak
The first time we met
I knew you had read the books in the
Secret library
of
my
destiny.
Yet
I found myself, w/o voice, speaking to you
IV
My voice has been found, as the metropolis
crumbles. my voice rises above the debris. BR>
The broken tower
is my support & somewhere on this island
a vehicle is in search
of
me/
Your name is written
on the hub of this vehicle/ I have pulled up
my skirt slightly to signal to you
my glove has fallen
suddenly I am transparent
as you stop & take
'me w. you.
V
Bridegroom & bride, the naked child,
clothed, the tiger, aware, the monkey, more
intelligent than the fallen king/
driving
North.
The flame in my spine is brighter than
the one in your mirror, you avoid turning &
keep yours eyes, on the horizon/
the shopkeeper & apprentice,
on the horizon of
lost love,
la chanson,
tourjours
la chansno
*
NYC 2004
for O
"If the believer
understood the meaning of the saying
"the color of the water is the color of the receptacles"
he wld admit the validity of all beliefs.
He wld. recognize God in every form & every object of
faith."
Ibn Al Arabi.
Louise Landes Levi is a poet, translator and musician. Her works include translations of Rene Daumal's RASA Essays on Indian Aesthetics, Sweet on My Lips: the Love Poems of Mirabai; and her own poetry books: Guru Punk, Avenue A and Ninth Street, and Don't Fuck with The Airlines. The three poems here appear in her chapbook Uvays & Mohammed. Photograph by Ira Cohen.