Education and learning

Education and learning

a chasm of viewpoint

one from up - down

one from down -up

can they ever match?

One is offering a view

one is taking that point

and changing it around

a generational shift

happens whether or not

Building blocks offered

Legos taken and clipped

the globe turns and churns

the humanity tries to cope

it is all economics

 

Dr. E- Major

Music evidently was your  soul

every note was a person 

you touched

Fly phenomenally on Bragi's

wings helped by Apollo

and scaled to an E-major

your time was limited but

your influence eternal

in the sense that an individual

you reached - their genes

will sound with chords

of what you generously 

with humoresque sang 

Predicting disaster

root fingers grab the soil

fingers spread widely

mostly to one side

root rots after years

poking the asphalt

one day alas

Burning coals

Must I still have yearnings

for sex and being held tightly

and live this sexless existence?

Boiling with anger and dismay

just for the lack of infinite grasp

of partner's soulless assumption

that his needs or lack there of

is somehow okay and therefore

I should accept and close off

my body's hot and simple desire

on a cold afternoon in winter

wishing it summer somewhere else

Chatbot

Never will I rhyme again

due to chat - and but

It is too close to 

what we poets contrive to say

and yet - up against 

the machines we created

the mind must be stronger

- otherwise humanity will 

lose its face - in truth

we already lost 

but I still refuse to concede

bringing hope to the streets!

Mixed up

 A trip to a valley

somewhere I have been before

pleasant views - sunny dispositions

Alas I know not

where I wandered in a daze

disastrous mellifluous - darkness

Just due to dreams

never fulfilled - shot down 

I did not find my nightmare

Return to a setting

Return to "normalcy" 

lacking cranberry

on a trip 

Return to a nightmare

peeing every 30 minutes

on a journey

Return to idiocy

having forgotten

on a voyage

Return to reproach

not foreseeing

my passage

Feeble brain

Combattive preventative initiative 

trying hard to eliminate muss

from brain's overload of visual fog

bombarded with ads and fads

no rest for a searching soul

scared of losing marbles and more

but daily give up on modernity's

names and music and artsy fartsy

not retaining any novelty's name

the temporal lobe answers to its name

temporarily out to lunch -

hopefully a good and fun one

with a glass half full - the other part

should be subdued vehemently

Eleanor revisited

Humbled again by lack of knowledge 

By the vastness of the universe

Personal or objective

Forgetting myself and my idea

Of leaving behind something 

Tangible or transcendental 

Children and a poet’s stab

How can my humble ideas

Be compared to a mountain ?

The only one one must

Compare to is oneself 

On better days or younger 

The rest is futile 

But one could aspire

And be inspired.

On reading Eleanor

By David Michaelis

Un moment de la follie

Les fleurs du mal - les fleurons du bon

moi une cavale -je crains le ton

du monde entier -avec des épines

de l'églantier - liberté clandestine

sans qu'on le sache - ah - la vache.

Les poids

Les poids du monde entier

parlent du chagrin eternel

de la condition humaine

et les miens sont superflus

mais pour moi - cela ne va pas

que je gagne du poids 

chaque fois je suis ici

C'était lourd cet  automne

et on n'a pas encore fini

- l'hiver viendra -

sans que je puisse rien faire

de tourner mes pensées

envers le nouvel an 

l'espoir léger et coloré. 

Le chagrin comptable

Mon lecteur est mort il y a quelques jours

pas des mots de circonscription possibles

seulement le chagrin le lenteur la perte

Mais surtout le temps soulage mes pensées

violentes et tristes

Mon ami est parti il y a un mois

et meme si c'était un don du bonheur

intellectuellement  avec de degradation

de son corps etc - mes sentiments

ne sont raisonnables

Day of the dead

In a few days it is the day of the dead

a need for celebrating vigorously now

because everyone shall join the crowd

Revelling in earnest boldly toasting

to those lost -  memories of the past

with smiles, sadness, and recognition

With an honest hope one day someone 

somewhere will send a sunny salute   

retaining a tad of our own life's span

Ton tapis oriental

Ta longue vie, mon cher ami Torsten,

était un tapis oriental avec des gribouillis

des detours interessants-  des morphemes

des couleurs rougeâtres - lapis-lazulis

Du Danemark à travers la Norvège  

De l'Afrique aux pays du Moyen-Orient

tous étaient pour IA et toi un synthèse

vos désirs - vos espoirs étaient encombrants

 

Parce que ta vie de ta retraite avec Ia

fut une rêve  lointaine mais vivante

et l'idée de trouver en France vous mena

à un village occitan et énergisant

Cazouls vous accueille avec des bras ouverts

avec ses associations et leurs humains

c'était presque comme une grenouillière

vous vous en baignaient comme des concubins

La maison vous donnait un cadre pacifique

avec son jardin et la piscine paradisiaque

un lieu embrassant d'un couleur fauviste

je risque dire le mot: aphrodisiaque!

Les associations auxquelles tu appartenais

étaient si nombreuses et tu les as portées

non seulement ton enthousiasme passionné

mais aussi ton savoir-faire de sincérité

Le president de maintes federations locales

de la musique, des arts, et aussi de Rotary

avec un joli coeur tout à fait méridional

ton temps donné sans compter économie

Pour savoir plus de la vie d'ici - l'oenologie

t'intéressait avec les dégustateurs cherchant

à boire du vin de pays - avec méthodologie

en dansant les vielles quadrilles concertant

Les treilles cazoulines et des autres bals

tu étais aussi present avec le corps: Fnaca

têtu - t'as  trouvé le temps pour les cabales 

tu n'as jamais rien fait, mon frère, nada 

Après la mort d'Ia ton beau-frère et sa bande

t'avaient emmené à une excursion de Stevenson

et tu as commencé ton perle colorée et grande

pour calmer ton deuil et affronter sa dimension

Tu étais fier des tes enfants et leurs petits

tes liens en Norvège étaient fort et vivants

souvent en été tu montais à ton pays depuis

ton enfance et tes fondements énergisants

Ton plus  grand cadeau est ta bonté, ton amour

pour l'autre que tu rencontrais n'importe où

dans le cadre de moyen-âge et les troubadours

tu les écoutais même s'ils étaient des loup-garous

Avec ton linceul des couleurs fantastiques et vifs

tes amis voulaient bien t'envelopper gracieusement

en te remerciant pour nous avoir embrassé  - pardi

et moi -Torsten -mon  ami du coeur - joyeusement

 

   

 

t

My outer-worldly friend - invite me once more

Whenever I returned from my happy place

to this outpost of the universe

you invited me for more than 35 years

to eat and chat and into your embrace

and I expected you to do this year too

Our mutual longing for the "other world"

even though our families in the beginning

were here - we  felt like outsiders -

we shared our experiences  before kids

what we did when we were young

Our communal love for art, books, music,

discussions, life - you had your share 

of sorrows - I had mine - how could we not

after all this time - some would say 

a lifetime - or  just a half  of one

Your pride in your family and your kids

are unmatched - their accomplishments

you shared with joy in your eyes - united

you and your husband - you adored him

but you probably had fights too

You became an Ulpan teacher over here 

your group lasted for more than 2 decades

you taught kids to go to their bar/bat mitzvah

your curiosity of your ancestral religion

intrigued me and I learned from you

We as women in the American diaspora

you from Israel and me from Denmark

wanting always to flee this odd place

even though our lives were easy - yet

I wish you were still welcoming me

At your dinner table with Danish decor

and your lovely cooking - Mediterranean

first a drink with your hors d'oeuvres 

then surely a soup created in your kitchen

a fish and a light dessert - lovingly planned

At the end of the evening at the coffee

debates flew wild - mostly between me 

and your hubby while mine and you

watched our sparring matches -  

words of female wisdom  you prompted

Oh my outer-worldly-friend - Mali

of course I reciprocated because that's

what Europeans do - not Americans

maybe that's why we felt a closeness

I wish you could invite me again

  

-    

Pam, summer- friend

In scurrying for a song to compose

about you, Pamela, sweet summer queen

I came across two and the novel

but none would give me the perfect mien

You are so far and near 

Pam - you are a sweet dear

Having known you for some percent

of your celebratory 8 decades

we just connect in summers past

sending you lots of accolades 

You are so near and far

Pam - you are a true star

Need I tell you that you are a blend

of someone fun, sober, and humorous 

the rose imbibed over the years

did sometimes made you stuporous

So far and near are you

Pam - toddle toddle loo

Happy birthday to an autumn broad 

keep your spirits high and mighty

dance away the September days

You are a special one, Aphrodite

You are near and far - so

Pam - nails the day-glo

  

Huitres à 11

Huitres à 11 heures

les samedis matins

une belle tradition

surtout en plein d'été 

la cave du village

il y a des tables 

du vin et de vie

au soleil nuageux

les coquillages jolis

vendus avec du citron

simples et si beaux

le senteur de la bleue

Un ami biterrois

Cher ami d'un village biterrois

on se ne voit que quelquefois

mais notre lien est fort et vivant

et je vais te dire en chantant

que j'adore nos conversations

notre monde tourne en rond

de tous les sujets possibles

qui peuvent être sensibles

ou seulement pour le plaisir

de se voir et  vraiment sentir

qu'il existe un ami absolu

bien en partie un peu farfelu.

À Jacques

The castle afar

Staying somewhere else

glazing with sleepy eyes

on the morrow of mist

there it is a castle -  

Longish surrounded by

verdant voluptuous trees

greyish skies looping hills

there is a castle -

Someone must have designed

delved in the memoirs 

launched its beginnings

there is a castle

Who lived there - who loved

and who laughed there

and died - families

there is a castle

Voelva"s secret garden

Somehow - the Voelva mused mysteriously

smiling and sensing what she really felt.

Her reddish-gray mane of locks was loosely

flowing down her back - but no one saw it

- only in her little hut - she lithely stretched 

her long legs and her arms  while feeling free

and seemingly young again although her age

was anything but a fountain of youthful skin.

She didn't care - she felt alive for probably

the last time of her life - an affair that had

begun about seven years ago - a fearless fling

of matching not souls - surely only bodies

craving a bit of fun - a hard run - buns raving

and he flaying about like youngish stripling

and she a vessel owning the jocular bottom

to meet in a joyful but thoughtless coupling

without a care or even a thought of future

- because there was not - mayhap that was why

it was just one of those things - like the bard

of the twentieth century had written -  not

anything serious - only to pleasure one self

in the company of another - doppelgängers

a duality of bodies needing stroking and sex.

That was the secret garden of Vigga the Voelva

and she cherished it without crude culpability

standing -looking out of her window after

the storm flowing over her hok - streaming

rain and wild winds roaring after he had gone.

And she turned the lights out and went to bed.