Louise Landes Levi

 

ALONE


                                      Alone/

                                                    Alone/

 

                                              Night-thought

 

                                                                     GHIRDHARA/ dawn.


                       ________

 

                             O Rain/ O Rain,

 

                                                         Flowers, Fruit, Fern

 

                                                                       The

                                                                             SONG

 

                                          Whatever   Whatever   Whatever

                                                  I offer you Lord

                                                                                 is

                                                                                         small.

 

     Paris 1977

Adapted from the love poems of MIRABAI, 1498-1550, No. India.
Ghirdhara, lit. 'who held the mountain', a reference to Krishna.

FERNS

                                                                           for
                                                                                E.L.-S.
                                                     among
                                              the
                                         FERNS/ the deer/ so 'slowly',
                                  so
                         elegantly/ leaving traces

                                                     in

                                                         sand,
                                                                     water,

                                                              on
                                                                       AIR
                                                        A
                                               man, touches
                                       you, takes you in his
                                  arms/ he says "don't fool yr.self,
                              yr. lying, in my arms"/&
                                                                          you
                                                                               remember,
                                                 As
                                       if, to annihilate, &
                                    who was/ the subject (of
                              the fantasy)/ was it you, was it
                        me/ & were we, those dancers on the
                                                       temple
                                                                 walls,

 

           the fragments, of, antiquity/ purity of the archtype /
  SPACE, the allegory, did you really hate/ the 'sons' of David?
                                  SIAMO UGUALI/ I once wrote
                                        on the walls of the S-
                                            Bahn, in Ottobrun

         Bagnore l995

Else Lasker-Schuler, German poet, 1876-1945. Fled Germany & from Zurich went to Jerusalem where she died, homeless &am p; alone. Collaborated with the painter Frans Marc but more than 3/4 of this work was destroyed by the Nazis. Living Theatre production of "Ich und Ich" ("I and I", transl. J. Malina) NYC,1992


THINKING

                                                Thinking
                                      to be a yogini, I ate
                                             a poisonous
                                                   plant

                                                      &

                                   cried the entire night.


      Bagnore l996

 

ON THE DESERTED ROAD

 

                                                On
                                        the deserted
                                road to Merigar, sure
                           I'm somehow misguided, in
                   my timings, an encounter w. a stranger
                        who says, 'how nice to meet a poet
                                               before
                                                          noon'

                                                &

              suddenly, 'beyond mind', I see, the mountains, &
                         the wonderful panorama/ the space
                                                              up/
                                                                       there.

 

           Arcidosso 1995