Saturday, August 30, 2014

...and gael force winds


 
 
 
 

The Headless Body

From the Irish Gaelic of Aonghas O Dalaigh (16th century)
A lament for the rebel leader Fiach McHugh O'Byrne
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I see your body headless
stuck on Dublin’s steel spikes.
The sight stuns me senseless.
We poets never lost your likes.
 
Your body impaled before me
a spectacle to our great crowd.
Today your horror all may see,
yesterday your courage our byword.
 
Once a fine figure with grand grace,
now as I behold you horribly
quartered my heart drains my face,
my mind dismembers my memory.
 
The sight blinds even my blindside,
weakens the strength of my stride.
Seeing you spiked tightens my hide.
Your tragedy shouts worldwide.
 
Now who’ll help the poor, patronize
our teachers and poets too?
O body, now that you hang headless
‘twere better not to live after you.
 
Who now will recompense the scholars,
give hospitality, entertain?
With you butchered so, in quarters,
who will provide our wine?
 
Your four limbs hacked by butchery
stuck on four sharp steel stakes
before me here in Dublin city
beggars my heart with blindness.

 
Your headless torso has now truly
left green Leinster’s good men
without the harp of hospitality
to cultured conversation.
 
Your tortured torso’s a woeful sight.
Giver of weapons and horses,
hacked apart by an alien’s hatchet,
limbs chopped off with curses.
 
Legion the laments of your history.
Our hero’s headless horror
stuck up on spikes indifferently,
changed in colour and contour.
 
Telling tales of their travels like lords
I heard foreign friends in your fort;
gossip for girls, versed by your bards.
Shut silent now that court.
 
Great grief! Beheaded in your glory
who spoiled enemy territory,
you’re now denied the honour our history
should give your buried body.

 
Before I witnessed your sacrifice
brave son of Aodh’s brave kind,
my grief’s that my heart did not rise,
that my eye was not blind.
 
We’ll never again see to emulate
your strong stride, warm hand;
no more admire your noble head’s shape,
a noble image of Ireland.
  
 
 
 
                              Desmond  O'Grady     +2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
....

Saturday, August 23, 2014

with a nod to Poe









               Stupid Raven









I know that my Redeemer lives
Be that as it may,
There's still this
Irritating
Black bird
Rapping on my chamber door
Incessantly reminding me
Of my loss

Grief is like an earthquake
At least mine has been
I knew it was likely to come
I thought  i'd prepared
Yet when it arrived I was still 
Shocked & overwhelmed

What's worse
Are the aftershocks
Never knowing when they'll come
Or how frequently
Or how hard each will be
Or how long they'll each last

I know you're better off
And in our Savior's arms
But you're not in my arms anymore
And I'm not in yours

I'm supposed to be  on your shoulders 
In the sun
Or slung over your shoulder
Asleep, too tired  & too young
Depending on your stamina and strength and patience

But this fucking raven keeps visiting me
In my chamber
"No more, never more!"
Shut up

Stupid bird
Stupid melancholy
Stupid pain

Let me go

Rain, rain, go away
Come back again some other day
Maybe someday when it's easier to ignore  you,
Work through  you
See past  you

Today, ...you're all I know








      Ted Mallory
















Tuesday, August 5, 2014

the oldest love poem








off the lips of a fair maiden



Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,
Lion, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.


.....................
Bridegroom, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey,
In the bedchamber, honey-filled,
Let me enjoy your goodly beauty,
Lion, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey.
Bridegroom, you have taken your pleasure of me,
Tell my mother, she will give you delicacies,
My father, he will give you gifts.


.....................
You, because you love me,
Give me pray of your caresses,
My lord god, my lord protector,
My SHU-SIN, who gladdens ENLIL's heart,
Give me pray of your caresses










This inscription, dating from the 8th century BC and belonging to the Ancient Babylonian Era, is described as the world's oldest known love poem. According to the Sumerian belief, it was a sacred duty for the king to marry every year a priestess instead of Inanna, the goddess of fertility and sexual love, in order to make the soil and women fertile. This poem was most probably written by a bride chosen for Shu-Sin in order to be sung at the New Year festival and it was sung at banquets and festivals accompanied by music and dance.





those were the days







......









Monday, August 4, 2014

at the interface between epistemology and metaphysics

                                    





                               











                                   PREFACE



reality bubbles of thoughts projected on the worlds'
 mirage a phantasmagoria of shifting realities
bubbles of thought the real but phantasms of thought
 taken for the real
reality but an hallucination mistaken for the real
reality mind produced bubbles of thoughts

 projected on the out there forming the worlds mirage
languages' net thrown o’er the out there
 forming the worlds mirage
meaning from the net but nothing but minds invent
reality mind produced bubbles of thoughts

 projected on the out there forming the worlds' mirage







                            ..... to a larger poem entitled Psychosis
                                 by the australian erotic poet

                                     Colin Leslie Dean











....