the birds of the air

There was a Young Lady in White,

Who looked out at the depths of the Night;

But the birds of the air

Filled her heart with despair,

And oppressed that Young Lady in White.

Edward Lear

this waking amongst men

ben at lake michigan, april 2010

Whatever the difference is, it all began

the day we woke up face-to-face like lovers

and his four-day-old smile dawned on him again,

possessed him, till it would not fall or waver;

and I pitched back not my old hard-pressed grin

but his own smile, or one I'd rediscovered.

Dear son, I was mezzo del cammin

and the true path was as lost to me as ever

when you cut in front and lit it as you ran.

See how the true gift never leaves the giver:

returned and redelivered, it rolled on

until the smile poured through us like a river.

How fine, I thought, this waking amongst men!

I kissed your mouth and pledged myself forever.

Don Paterson,

"Waking with Russell"

the shore broke from the sea and trailed in your wake

Viaţa mea se iluminează

Părul tău e mai decolorat de soare,

regina mea de negru şi de sare.

Ţărmul s-a rupt de mare şi te-a urmat

ca o umbră, ca un şarpe dezarmat.

Trec fantome ale verii în declin,

corăbiile sufletului meu marin.

Şi viaţa mea se iluminează,

sub ochiul tău verde la amiază,

cenuşiu ca pământul la amurg.

Oho, alerg şi salt şi curg.

Mai lasă-mă un minut,

Mai lasă-mă o secundă,

Mai lasă-mă o frunză, un fir de nisip.

Mai lasă-mă o briză, o undă.

Mai lasă-mă un anotimp, un an, un timp.

Nichita Stanescu

My Life Is Bright

Your hair bleaches in the sun,

my queen, dark and salt-spun.

The shore broke from the sea and trailed in your wake

like a shadow, like a fangless snake.

Ghosts of the ebbing summer tack and roll,

ships of my marine soul.

And my life floods with light

under your eye, green when the sky is bright,

gray as earth under a setting sun.

Oh, I frisk and flow and run.

Allow me a minute more.

Allow me a second more.

Allow me a leaf, a grain of sand.

Allow me a breeze, a wave to the shore.

Allow me this time of year, a year, a time.

(my translation)

water dark light memory silence

accidents of light and shadow (pond, july 28)

A silvery scarce-call-silver gloss

Lighted the watery-plated leaves.

G.M. Hopkins

a fragment of an unwritten poem

accidents of light and shadow (pond) 4

"feels like 39 / 102 degrees"

kilarney provincial park. april, 2013