1.
the
colloidal poem – hard rain
falling, flutes in the distance, whose?
Bowers of all sorts, young & old, some
w. bow in hand, some empty handed
in the end, all will be full,
full will be empty, night
will be day, inspiration will
pervade the forest, the animals will
leave the zoo, take over the town, indeed
the dinosaurs will prevail, as before–
O give up your councils & your arms, lay
down your bouquet before the scintillating morning,
nothing was disturbed until you took it for
your own, O morning fern, O nightly.
2.
Paracelsus
meant no harm, turning gold to leaf & leaf
to love, he meant no harm, traveling east, along the
rivers, to the places kept secret, he meant no
harm, mingling w. the gypsies, w. the
sorcerers, he meant no harm, to
the CONTRARY, the birds informed him, also the
stone, he injected the fierce particles into his
midnight vein, by morning, the dead
had awoken, it was an allegory,
He traveled north, then east. Do not expect
protection fr. the pharaoh, to the CONTRARY, you
are chosen to be silent, when the whip has
crossed yr. vertabrae, O Paracelsus,
was it you, finally, who healed me?
3.
Suddenly
the ferocious winds of morning, opened,
the sun was setting, or was it rising, all I saw
was blue, all I felt was red, irredescant rainbows, all
over the mountain, something had changed in my
heart of hearts, a small light, grew larger,
something in the shadow fell into
into the snow, I cld. sing again, it must have
been your footstep in the distance, someone was
calling my name, how unusual, for I spoke to no one, it must
have been a dark angel, wishing for company, there
on the edge of the immense dawn, a small
bird, flew over the courtyard, I asked
are you you and you were
I neglected to write, in my narratives, that the villages in
the mountains are very ancient, some say, one, Santa Fiora, is
like Jerusalem – one night I got a ride to Bagnore, fr.Merigar
I said, O we shld. go to Santa Fiora, the next town (so much
tension among the Buddhists) & I took them to my favorite
little place there, where one can play music gigs also —
& they got drunk & forgave each other all the
petty shit & then we went to another place & one
of the ladies became very ferocious &
funny & that was a memorable evening & I thought
O maybe now the Buddhists will be kind to
each other, especially the 'geku' w. all
the power, but, he wasn't any kinder
sadly.
She was leaving
the planet, she, our shaman
warrior & we cld. not
go. w. her, we
cld. not go,
her
earings were left here
& her dresses, she had left
them, quite some time
before she left us,
her
bones, her breasts, her
ear lobes even, cldl not sup-
port the prior style – but
she was on a fast
train, a fast train befitting
her, she climbed a moun-
tain higher than Ever
est & left us all
bewondered,
She
shed more light on
the darkest moment than a
firefly at midnight, she
had IT, the courage
to
keep going, to remain
present, when the odds were a-
gainst her, I wld. think, just
relax, but she was
a warrior & she knew the
star route & rode it out one
morning, & as befitting
a shaman, she was
not alone she
was held,
when she left
in
the
ARMS OF LOVE.
for Janine 22.12.11
Amsterdam NL
Louise Landes Levi lives in a stone tower in a miniscule village—Bagnore, one of the many villages which encircle Mt Amiata, the highest peak in Toscana. When not in the tower she can be found on either of two islands—Man Hatta or Isla Margarita.
Her translations include Sweet On My Lips: The Love Poems of Mira Bai, Toward Totality: selected poems of Henri Michaux, and RASA By Rene Daumal. Her recent books: Avenue A & Ninth Street (Shivastan, 2004), Uvasi & Mohammed (Il Bagatto, 2005), Banana Baby (with facing Italian translations by Alessandro Tuoni, Super Nova, 2006), Tower 2 Tower or dc X (Il Bagatto, 2008), The Book L (Cool Grove Press, 2010), and Love Cantos, 1-5 (Jack In Your Box, 2011). Her electronic chapbooks The Highway Queen, Banana Baby and HO are available on Big Bridge. Photo by Ira Cohen.
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