AGAINST THE WALL by KLAUS J. GERKEN (1981) I Against the wall Through vitalism accepted A stubble field of flowers Red flowers Glowing in the farther sunlight Of all compounded madness Hold us here. 5-11-80 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken II Jump through a fire To kindle the flame The candle burns slowly It's wind we disdain. 5-11-80 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken III It's a different era It feels that way From the end to the beginning The shadow play Produces remarks - Able silences Throughout this ensemble The poet knows best From knowledge through forming To, well, I digress The hand that once made thee Strikes thee at best It's slow to recover The wound laid to rest It's silence that matters In total defeat. Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken IV COLUMBUS He got too near To something He could not Control. 10 Oct 7:20 a.m. Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken V Up against the wall Frozen like a corpse Fear wells into anger Pain is obsolete Shadows with the tide Of daylight disappears Alone we face the guns Anger turns to fear. 25-11-80 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken V "Late at night standing High upon a battlement: I heard a Knight from Kueringsberger Weize Singing in such wonderful Clears tones among the crowds. If he can't be mine, Let him leave my land." Fast, bring my horse and armor, to think that through a woman's whim I have to flee this land. Since she wants to force me into servitude - She shall never more Be blessed with my love. Von Kuerenberg 18-12-80 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 VII "When I stand alone By the window in my shirt And I think of you Dear departed knight My colour blossoms Like the rose on the thorn And with my deepest sorrow My heart's a heavy weight!" Von Kuerenberg Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 VIII I unleafed you like a rose So I could look into your soul, But found nothing. Yet all around from horizons of the land and sea reaching far into eternity an unappeasable scent permeated everything. Jiminez 12-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 IX Go having rediscovered The wall of love I have rested In the eye Of a thousandth of a night In this lost garden The night Landed like a dove In the oppressive midday air I pluck oranges and jasmine. Ungaretti 12-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 X The courtyard has a tower The tower has a balcony The balcony a lady The lady with a flower - white A man has passed the place - Why did he go by? - And why has he taken with him The courtyard With it's tower And it's balcony It's balcony and lady - It's lady and her flower That is white? Y Ruiz 12-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 XI I will die in Paris, in the bursting of a cloud: Even now I am reminded of that day. I will die in Paris, yes, why not, On a Thursday, like today perhaps, in fall. On a Thursday it will be; because today, a Thursday, As I'm writing this, my bones, they bother me; Never like today I've found myself alone And seen my way toward my end so clear. Dead is Caesar Valleho here. Battered - You have battered him. He who's never done you anything. You gave him sour vinegar, sour - on a stick And with a sponge. The Thursdays Are his witnesses; witness to his bones, The rain, the streets...the emptiness... C. Vallejo 12-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 LOVERS They lie on the grass A woman and a man They eat oranges, trade kisses Like the waves exchange their foam. They lie on the beach A woman and a man They eat lemons, trade kisses Like the clouds exchange smoke. They lie in the earth A woman and a man They do not speak, and do not kiss Trading silence for more silence. Octavio Paz Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 HEAVEN AND EARTH Who hasn't got a blue suit in his closet? Who doesn't eat breakfast, and takes no "tram", With the eternal cigarette in his mouth, and suitcase full of sorrows? I, who was born and nothing else! I, who was born and nothing else! Who doesn't write a letter now and then? Who has no pressing appointments on his mind And doesn't die from monotony, crying for a word? I, alone and born alone! I, alone and born alone! Who isn't called Carlos or otherwise Other? Who calls a cat other that Cat Cat? Yes, I! Born alone, alone, and nothing else! Yes, I! Born alone, alone, and nothing else! C. Vallejo 14-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 ADVISE Chew well your food before you die. Chew it well: one, two, three! Tragic figure, listening. In the doghouse! Forever in the doghouse - Lean upon my shoulder, child, Lean upon my age, knowledge, Lean upon my religion, my solitude, Lean upon that, long before It'll do you good - Lean upon a dream and show no-one. Lean upon that, belly to back, back to belly. Lean upon that, dog in doghouse, Seed within the fruit, people in their emptiness. Michaux 14-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 GRIECHEN The pillar, Alone, immobile, Has the colour of living flesh Without lips. My hands Hold Your head Breathless In her grasp. Dark fruit. Strange... The pillar Captures, by its curves, Light and shadow, Day and night. Bangs 27-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 FUND A stone I want to pick up A stone In the street on a hill A stone Which was formed By human hands To take with me To display it. That is Greece. I did not find A stone. But That does not Exist That it does not need to exist. With empty hands. Bangs 27-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 I THREW A STONE I threw a stone into the sea The waves struck out in violence Against the shore against Each other Reverberating back Towards the centre - Obscuring, obfuscating What created it A stone Beneath a whirlpool Now so still And calm I threw another stone... 27-01-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 THE ETERNAL SILENCE Five ears - and no sound for that! The world was dumb... * * * I heard with my ear my curiosity: Five times did I throw the line above me, Five times did I catch no fish - I asked, - No answer came into my net... * * * I heard my own love with my ear. Nietzsche 2-02-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 VENICE I stood upon a bridge Late, on a brown night. Through the distance came a song: It swelled with golden drops Across the trembling plain. Music, lights and gondolas - Streaming drunkenly into the twilight... My soul, I want a lyre now, A song, touched invisibly, A gondola song, in secret, Trembling in a wilderness of joy. - Did others hear it too? ... Nietzsche 6-02-81 Translated by Klaus J. Gerken (c) 1981 Sentences There is nothing like a simple sentence That touches those who do not speak. Gerken 9-02-81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Books Those books I wanted to steal When younger and I didn't have the money for: Those books like Odes of Horace Or Zukovsky's "A" and other ones From Sappho on to Valery Or cheap editions of the writers I once had all too many of But not more in my library, But in my mind contained therein For reference and for all of time Like books on Archeology, and History On certain aspects of society - on wine... On food... on... oh, other lives - on poet's lives That carried onward this tradition "Steal for knowledge - it's your right." Gerken 25-02-81 13:00 Hrs Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Nothing Got around to nothing Not a thought or e'en the Perturbation of a thought - Blank pages. Damp days (Although at times like these The sun makes haste to stem The tide of day - It takes the light away) Yet nothing - breathing, Bathing in the atmosphere - Floating on the tepid air Of personal reliances: That is As we might awake we dream And as we dream we form a bond, A bond with what? - A bond - A formal bond with our reality - This fleeting flood of nihilistic Sacrifice that stems the tide From erehwon to nowhere else - So I say to you - Got around to nothing, Even that is sometimes odd -. Gerken 2-03-81 10:20 a.m. Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Equation I'd like to balance the equation No one knows, but knows for sure Herakleitos was the wise Must have seen beyond the door "Fools we are, for evermore..." - Gerken 2-5 Mar 81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Morning Papers "I read the morning papers For things that matter most But nothing there Mattered most of all - O I was lost! O I was lost!" Gerken 5-03-81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken ? I'll tell ye in the morning What I might feel at night But I'll tell ye in the morning What morning will set right. Gerken 5-03-81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Storm A summer storm A winter's morn A hundred years ago Oh how perturbed That thought's disturbed It seems the same somehow I do remember Well...I don't I wasn't there at all Imagination Holds one there... it's a perfect day today! Gerken 5-03-81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken WINTER There beyond the setting sun Orion rises with the moon! Gerken 5-03-81 Copyright (c) 1981 Klaus J. Gerken Published by: Ygdrasil Press Web Page: http://users.synapse.net/~kgerken Email: kgerken@synapse.net Newsgroup: alt.centipede