October 2011
2 posts
When I Have Fears
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of...
The Old Stoic
Riches I hold in light esteem,
And Love I laugh to scorn;
And lust of fame was but a dream,
That vanished with the morn:
And if I pray, the only prayer
That moves my lips for me
Is, “Leave the heart that now I bear,
And give me liberty!”
Yes, as my swift days near their goal:
’Tis all that I implore;
In life and death a chainless soul,
With...
September 2011
1 post
War Is Kind
Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Hoarse, booming drums of the
regiment,
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above
them,
Great is the...
July 2010
1 post
Childe Harold, Canto IV, Verse 178
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Lord...
March 2010
1 post
Anabela Lee
Prije mnogo i mnogo ljeta
u kraljevstvu na obali
življaše djeva znana sred svijeta
pod imenom Anabela Lee,
i življaše sred briga i radosnih sjeta
da me voli i da se volimo mi.
Bio sam dijete i bila je dijete
u kraljestvu što plâču valovi,
no ljubavlju većom od ljubavi svete
ljubljasmo se ja i Lee,
te nam na ljubavi nebeske čete
zaviđahu, anđeli svi.
I tako prije ljeta i ljeta
u...
December 2009
7 posts
I Dreamed I Met William Burroughs
I met William Burroughs in a dream. It was some sort of bohemian farmhouse, and he was enthroned, small and skeletal, in a truly gigantic red armchair. When I asked him how he was, he replied Well, you know what they say—for best results, always mock and frighten lobster before boiling. Franz—I like that name, Franz. Childe Franz to the dark tower something or other … Hey, got a smoke? And...
the laughing heart
(Tom Waits reads “the laughing heart”: video on YouTube)
your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the watch. the gods will offer you chances. know them. take them. you can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the...
Ništa te kao ne boli
Dan je kao sunčan. Ti si kao veseo. Prolaziš, kao ne vide te. Svima je kao lijepo. Svima je kao dobro. Svima je kao ludo. I ti si kao sretan. Živi se kao u miru. Ptice su kao slobodne. Budućnost kao na dlanu. Savjest je kao čista. I suncu je kao jasno. O, srce, kao pjevaj. Svi kao brinu o svima. Svatko je prijatelj kao. Svima je kao stalo do tebe i do svijeta. I dan kao ode. I ti se kao smiješiš!...
Barbara
Seti se Barbara Celog tog dana pljuštalo je nad Brestom Išla si razdragana Rascvala ustreptala blistava Po kiši Seti se Barbara Stalno je pljuštalo nad Brestom I sreo sam te u ulici Sijam Smešila si se I ja sam ti se nasmešio Seti se Barbara A nisam te ni poznavao A ni ti mene Seti se Seti se ipak tog dana Ne zaboravi ga Čovek što je stajao pod strehom Zovnuo te Barbara I poletela si prema njemu...
Get Drunk!
Always be drunk. That’s it! The great imperative! In order not to feel Time’s horrid fardel bruise your shoulders, grinding you into the earth, Get drunk and stay that way. On what? On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever. But get drunk. And if you sometimes happen to wake up on the porches of a palace, in the green grass of a ditch, in the dismal loneliness of your own room, your...
The Genius of the Crowd
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day and the best at murder are those who preach against it and the best at hate are those who preach love and the best at war finally are those who preach peace those who preach god, need god those who preach peace do not have peace those who preach peace do not have love beware...
since feeling is first
since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world my blood approves, and kisses are a better fate than wisdom lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry — the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids’ flutter which says we are for each other: then laugh, leaning back in...