MEMORYBONE - 12 poems
Written in Bologna, Italy 1993-1994.
Originally published December 18, 1995 in Jackson, Wyoming.
Online publishing December 12, 2005 in Bronx, New York
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I
Surrounded
By a sunburnt expanse
A shell delicately cups
Within its cool inside curve
A stillness of nocturnal sand
II
a kiss is
a tender
& foolish
thing,
the
mad
tum-
bling of two
shells which
now
& then
touch,
pushed
by softly in-
sistent waves,
the
sharp
gur-
gling edge of
an ocean
which
means no
harm
III
Three birds fall together
And falling, rise.
Tre uccelli cadano insieme
E cadendo, si alzano.
Trois oiseaux tombent ensembles
Et tombants, ascendent.
IV
The fleeting smell of
An imaginary childhood
Lifts from my heart
But for a moment
This delicate weight
This obscure anxiety
Like a sheet rising
(Among distant cries)
Upon a sudden summer breeze
V
They danced like children
Through pools of ready blood
With ribbons, like some ancestral
Beast’s desiccated intestines,
Trailing negligently behind.
The moon, offering its open plate
Of innocence
In a sky of coal and vinegar,
Smiled a mother’s firm consent.
VI
Woman
You whom I’ve lost
irrepareably
A soft cocoon
Behind each eye
Unfolds for me
A smile tender
With sadness
Which aches now
As a kiss withheld.
VII
Quand la journée prends l’odeur
D’une douce résignation,
Sous un ciel à demi rêvant de pluie,
Le désir étranger d’un pommier en fleurs
L’oeil chaste de suffisance remplis.
VII bis
When the day takes on the smell
Of sweet resignation
Under a sky half dreaming of rain,
The foreign desire of an apple tree’s bloom
The chaste eye with sufficiency fills.
IIX
Yours is the ache of almost spring
Of land laid bare, turning
Eager then weary
Under the dreaming plow.
It is the soil set free
Only to fall
With each new toss of the blade.
IX
fratello pensiero
sorella anima
il vostro incesto eterno
fa di me un uomo
senza voce
incantato
sulla soglia d’una
feroce delicatezza
IX bis
brother thought
sister soul
your eternal incest
makes of me a man
without a voice
enchanted
in the doorway
of a ferocious delicacy
X
Assisi
Long before dawn
A rooster begins
Its lonesome call
I am awake--
A silent reed
Fallen upon
Dark waters
XI
Portrait du poète
à Giuseppe Ungaretti
Un pied dans le trou
L’autre dans la lune
Une main tripotant
La braguette de l’infini
L’autre, joyeuse
Perdue dans les plis
D’une jolie brune
Au yeux macchabées.
Une tête émergeant a jamais en finir...
Normal que le poète ai l’air d’une étoile.
XI bis
Portrait of the Poet
to Giuseppe Ungaretti
A foot in the hole
The other on the moon
One hand playing with
The infinite’s fly
The other, joyous one
Lost in the folds
Of a dark beauty
With maccabee eyes.
A head crowning without end...
No wonder the poet looks like a star.
XII
A cup a conch a stone
A memory bone
A drink with an old friend over formica
A burning expanse
The cool insides of a seaweed’s orb
Now dry, languid on the sand
The deep twirling darkness of coffee
It’s gilt of foam which clings then dries--
A silent, pale horizon--a stain
A delicacy
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