He is one of my favorite poets. He was in a Nazi labor camp, his parents were murdered by Nazis and he killed himself in 1970. What more disaster could possibly befall a person? But his poetry is so incredibly beautiful and concise. Sometimes I like to read them in the studio because they focus me - my thoughts and my feelings - into condensed, purposeful action. They always do the trick, when I remember to read them, that is. Just thought I would share a few:
SOUND-DEAD SISTER-SHELL,
let the dwarf-sounds in,
they have been examined:
together they muffle up the great heart
and bear it off on their shoulders to
every distress, every distress.
THE CORDON OF DOVES cut through,
the blasted
powers of blossoms,
charged with misdeed
the sought-for-thing, soul.
DREAM-DRIVEN on the cir-
cular track,
swollen,
two masks for one,
the dust of planets in hollowed
eyes,
nightblind, dayblind,
worldblind,
the poppy-capsule within you
goes down somewhere,
silences
a fellow star,
the swimming domain of sorrow
records another shadow,
it all does you good,
the heartstone thrusts through its fan,
no cooling
at all,
it all does you good,
you sail, smoulder, and die down,
swarms of eyes pass the straits,
a blood clot enters the track,
swarms of earth encourage you,
all the weather in the universe
is harvesting.
12 comments:
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Mountain Man! I wrote the beginning of a Paul Celan poem, Todesfugue, on one of my pieces once -
black milk of daybreak
we drink it in the morning
we drink it at noon
we drink it at night
we drink and we drink
something like that, i changed it.
happy belated birthday to the Mountain Man!!!
there is a forever in you...
Hi MM! your blog is working for me okay. Maybe it was a hiccup in the ether.
Martin!!!! I am glad you know his writing. He is so great, I can barely stand it.
Now the blogs are working for me again. I was going into serious withdrawal, I couldn't get to them. Pant, pant, pant.
I am off to teach "Drawing Studies" now in my hometown Philly. I had them do life-size self portraits for the first assignment. Might be a weird idea to start out with a big crit but too late now!!!!! I don't know what I'm doing but they don't know that.....yet!!!!!!!!!
I always get nervous before I go. But it's not as bad as last semester, in so far as I am now able to eat the day before.
please report back on your client's progress MM and have fun!
First of all. Paul Celan. Word. I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard his work. Oh, my.
Secondly, MM. I have an idea and it's not going away, and it's too long to go into here. Gimme a heller (that's the email equivalent of a "holler") at heartasarena@yahoo.com.
Oh, and it doesn't involve Amway or The Forum.
Beauteousness, mm...
I love everything. Everything. Paul Celan, people of the night, and dancers for charity.
the part about the poppy-capsule within you going down somewhere,
woah. Devistating.
My poppy-capsule wants me to step away from the key-board...
Mine too. Mine wants me to get some bitch ass work done.
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