Winter upon winter

Winter blahs
of la-di-dahs
oh the glow
of the snow
to just chill
at my sill
and dream away
of bergs at bay
winter doldrums
fee-fi-fo-fums.

NYC - an instant

New York City in the snow
has a glorious dark glow
a wonderment of busy bees
shoveling - hoveling indeed
sitting in a corner Starbucks
people-watching - moments deluxe
stopped by force - by the weather
en route from light to nether
but gratefully I sip my coffee
to the instant of feeling free.

The comics of Cazouls

Last day for a long time
here in this little place
that I know so well
to paraphrase the beginning
of Asterix et Obelix.

Each time is a journey
into the "comics" of Cazouls
its usual gallery of persons
The beginning - my neighbors
British are not your usual lot.

It expands to the Irishman
further down the street
I see him in summer - quite a hunk
young and a bit weird -solidly
charming and somehow caring.

The Canadian photographer
an artist in himself - having lived
the big life of 70 and 80ies
gone from a fancy ever-which-where
to a sad shadow of himself still holding.

The Lebanese couple on the corner
the man supervising everything
in summer and mostly winter
with his obligatory cigarette hanging
his wife a little mouse - yet feisty.

The Tunisian lady who is fully
maked-up to the nines always
impeccably dressed and ironed
always in skirts and silks stockings
yet she smiled and her spirituality shines.

The French fishmonger with a flair
for selling lowes arches like me
and we have great philosophical
and deep conversations about
almost anything from politics to sex.

Up the other way still in my street
although it has now another name
I walk past my favorite house
a true copy of Palladian villa
in miniature to the Norwegians.

These are a spacial breed of kindness
openness and just sheer joyful
integrating themselves deeply
in the village and its life
and remain truly a model for the rest.

To be continued

Les gens d'antan

Je cherche a trouver
l'histoire ancienne
de mon village adopte
des l'age antediluvienne
jusqu'au l'age medieval
avec des troubadours
et des droits seigneurials
Il y a des tambours
qui ont deja fait les pas
et je lis leurs efforts
interessants et mea-culpas
a eux de me douter les coffre-forts.
Dans mon cerveau revant
encore d'Adalais de Cazouls
mes pensees et mes idees hantent; -
elle n'etait pas un capitoul
mais peut-etre une femme
qui avait des idees cathares
elle avait donc un ame
qui devrait se faire avatar.
Quel est la verite des gens
des etres humains de la terre
de l'age lointain ou mainantant?
La question reste - dans
des mes essuie-verres!

Nomenclature for the happy in the soul!

Quintastic equals fifty and wonderful
I found in "the Guardian"
"Sexastic" is the same as a sixty year old
feeling good about herself
"septuastic" will be a person at 70
expression joy of life
"octoastic" shall the eighties decade
in a vivacious embrace
another ten years - a "nonastic"
will enjoy the latest bit
before the big centastic!

Sexastic, septuastic,octoastic, nonastic and
centastic are words coined by "Polygraphya".

Leben is reisen

Ich muss noch arbeiten
fur die Reisen die ich mache
und ich lebe einfach
wenn ich in die Welt herumkehre
einen Tag noch nich zu weit
von dieser Zeit werde
die Arbeit doch anzuhalten
und dann muss ich wahlen
meine Reisen begrenzen
und ich habe eine Furcht
denn ware ich eine Alte.

Food pornographya

Saw a term in a Danish newspaper
"food pornography"
guessing its connotations
of grandeur in Epicurean terms
joys of eating good food
to the point of ignoring
talking about anything else.
Taste buds of a rare kind, ya think?
Nah, due to the French enjoyment
of their well cooked meal -
now on the UNESCO lists of
immaterial items -
you can find it at any
well cooked meal in France
where you end up every conversation
around the dinner table
with food pornography
it is simply a ritual
to discuss how much time,
what did you do to make it special
how did you grandmother do it,
are the beans cooked better
starting in cold water or not?
From Julia Child to
the Michelin guides
they are what I would term
food - pornographya
you write about meals
you photograph the ingredients
you taste a simple home cooked meal
and you are in ecstasy.

Aendringsgruk

Et lille ord
jeg derpaa svor
at jeg ville det aendre
skibet er sejlet
og ordet fik
det til at kaentre.

(first poem in my mothertongue
in 40 years or more)

En cherchant les arches

Je me sens si a l'aise
dans mon petit endroit
je fais que je veux
j'ai tant d'espoir
de me debrouiller ici
sans connaitre vraiment le midi
mais les gens me font
le compliment d'ouvrir
leur maisons au fond
d'y bien aboutir
pour me donner la chance
par curiosite ou par bonte
de trouver les arches secrets
de Cazouls les Beziers
et je cherche en favorisant
les vielles maisons d'artissants
qui y reste du moyen age
leur esprits me disent autant
que je desire de revenir
autant que les batiments
me permettent d'avantage.

(C'est pas tout a fait ce que je voudrais dire - mais
l'esprit du poeme est la - tout de meme)

Time after time

- no time - it is gone
as soon as the moment
has been it no longer is
sometimes my perception
of the immediate time
slows it down - internally
and at other times
when I am interested
it runs like a jet motor
my seeing the time
has nothing to do with it
it is what time is
and that is all a nil
it is a quiet evolution
of my space here and now
philosophically I can
comprehend the time
for what it is
but sometimes it is hard
to grasp the moment
and just float along
in it - it all depends
on the internal interest
of the individual
time can exist or not
you can exist or not
the way we do it
is our fortune's wheel
and the time we have left
is all we have got -

Pampering

Today in my little village
pampering my weary face
was jolly on the agenda
expensive - yes
but feelings were great
and somewhat different
I have not done it before
but realizing that the French women
do take more care of themselves
I thought - why not me too?
So my face of maturity is the same
as always - wrinkles galore
but it is hydrated and modulated
and inundated with creams
and massages - and masks
and more creams - so
at least for today
my rippled sandpaper is gone and
my creases are seemingly less deep!

Dreaming of history

JFK MLK RFK
need I say more
than when you read
what they actually said
and stood for
that was when
the US had leaders

JFK knew when to say
how to say it
and the public
was not in until later
on his somewhat sordid
life in power
however he symbolized
the young hopeful US

MLK was a black man
who changed how
the African Americans
were treated
not by violence
by changing the dream
of love in the US

RFK stood for justice
and he would have
taken on the mafia
and made other changes
he of all had the makings
of a great president
not to become one in the US

JFK, MLK, RFK
all within one decade
we can mourn for
what could have been
history might
not have been so -
but oh what a
youthful joyful dream
long gone in the US

In awe - of friendship

Just to forestall
I don't think I'll be
as fortunate as yesterday
with so much luck
on my plate - unprecedented
at least in my book.
Tonight - I am beholden -
for having served a meal
to my newfound almost 5 year old
f r i e n d s
of this tiny village hidden
somewhere - just pure luck
again - unrivalled.
They may not feel it
but I do - unjudged by them
accepted as I am
unless I tell them
of my bagage -
to me that is rare -
in this day and age
and I am eternally grateful.

Lucky day - yesterday

Could not find my cards
knew they were somewhere
in my hideouts or drawers
looked desperately for them
for three whole days - gave up -
and yesterday while shaking
something else - different
out they fell on a whim.
I smiled - it was my lucky day.

Lucky to be alive

in my pj I sit and ponder
the split of mind asunder
of here and there on the globe
giving my thoughts a robe
to tie the different pieces
split like an atom of caprices
not all are so fortunate
as to readily correlate
life here or elsewhere
creating panache with flair
and enjoy this privilege
in my vintage petite village

Une idee germinante

Un dejeuner pas a l'herbe
mais dans un petit restaurant
tres gentil pas acerbe
avec une amie en causant
on bavarde sur nos vies
en mangeant au soleil brillant
on se rend compte bien servie
le temps passe - nous absorbant
une idee notre ensemble gerbe
un personnage sera notre ciselant
sa galaxie deviendra superbe
que sa reflexion soit urbi et orbi.

Village works?

Civilization what is it?
Is it that you can live in harmony?
with Mother Nature and your neighbor?
Does it show its head
when you respectfully disagree?
When you are teaching
your child, "Thank you" and "please"?
Does it appear magically?

When you talk down to someone
does that someone have respect for you?
If she or he does
then he or she is the civilized
and you are on the margin.
Great thinkers have contemplated
the barbaric society for eons
and came up with more reasons why,
but a human being conjures not
by accident - it takes work
it again takes a village.

Sleep- no

Sleepless again
muddles my brain
function is nil
I'm no Jill
a person needs
his, her rest
this is indeed
a day like pest.

Une pierre dans ma main

Une pierre dans ma main
sur mon habituel chemin
chaque jour je me rends
pour exercer mon corpulent
cerveau - exigeant l'air
et inspiration - un seminaire
de la nature et du monde
meme si des idees venues
sont parfois moribondes.
Un petit rocher contient
les atomes, des elements
qui etaient la au debut
une anti-matiere absolute
avec des 14 C radioisotopes
et des cellules de l'hysope.
Ce galet represent pour moi
les temps de ma finale voie
le terre rouge du midi francais
les gents m'obligeraient
de participer et m'engager
de vivre sans me degager
de la terre, du ciel ou de la mer
jusqu'au noli me tangere.

Un diner

Mon petit village cosmopolitan
avec des indigenes languedociens
et presque tous les pays europeens
represent le fait du monde entier
et un plus de solidaire humanite
naturellement pas tout a fait un paradis
mais un bien honnete rassemblement
fut au diner hier mangeant intensement
chez des amis -tous mes remerciements.

(A Francine at Max)