Urbi et Orbi

Amongst the names of heroes and saints, where are those of the lost? Bernhard Lichtenberg – Berlin Priest – who stood, before no-one was left to stand – Ten years – a lifetime – tolerance, humanity steadfastness he thundered from … Continue reading →

Ur-Fascism, Defeated

You return not as Mussolini or Auschwitz An Ur-Fascism containing all the elements needed to reconstitute this horror. We will defeat you. With your disdain of weakness, love, the other. I……. …Just say: I’m not afraid to be weak in … Continue reading →

A Caged Child’s Cry

Her cry alights my soul as a wasp whose sting comes without fail. Indifferent. A nation of indifferents we’ve become. Watching children die with the same eye, nonchalance, with which we delete ads. The crenation of our souls, hearts, happens … Continue reading →

The Silence of Drifting Snowflakes

Pushing aside a fat squirrel You alight feasting on the Sun’s flowers Winter. Yet today the sun’s smile has gone That warmth has gone as have you Nezha frail yet strong ancient yet childlike Helen-like always Nezha You are the … Continue reading →

I Met My Assassin

I met my assassin today Twenty-five pounds on my back, moving on a path that goes no-where He sidled up to me, squinting, unrecognized Then, placing his hand on the hilt of the blade remaining in my heart said: “I … Continue reading →

I Consume Time

I consume time, brother, my brother Still here decades later, on this path, as are you, I fear. I consume time, brother, my brother and in doing so, the shamefully hidden is become seen. Do you remember, brother, my brother? Walking, … Continue reading →

Run Friend, Like the Wind

My dear friend Comrade Compañera Half In moments, the starters gun will fire, you will run Find me by your side with you, proud of you Of all you are Of all you will be Of all you have been … Continue reading →

Here

Here The scent of my morning coffee drifting through the room. On the table The Times. Surrounded by silence. In the distance your laugh. You are near. ———————- 2018 Neither in Heaven nor Hell

Finding god

Approaching Timios Stavros birthplace of Zeus on our climb of Psiloritis we pause, resting on a planed boulder One hand in yours the other open outstretched. Fatigued with his work, a bee alights resting on the planed, open hand. Feeling … Continue reading →

Psiloríti

Walk with me On this path As we climb and climb Reaching, finally, the top of Psiloriti From there, all of Crete is ours It will take days, weeks but, arriving, we will drink cold water Dine on olives, feta, … Continue reading →

Two Lovers

Two lovers wake and look to the east The blood red sun has come to join them Look, she says to her love Each ray is the reflection of his beauty It floods over her He is the color, the … Continue reading →

Dagenn

What is this pain burning the heart of my soul ? Yes, Ive known that with great love comes great pain But there is no breath there is only emptiness there is no heart only a shredded organ blood seeps … Continue reading →

Without You

Time bends when you are far. Minutes become decades and, when you are close, days shorten femtoseconds. Vision and smell alter too. The rose-fingered dawn The bright blue of our sky The hemoglobin-red of the poppy All lessened in your … Continue reading →

What Could You Have Been ?

Mother-daughter-child. What am I to call you? What might I say as I gaze upon you, lying in that maternity ward? You are now a mother. A child giving birth to a child. Married at 15 Pregnant at 16. A … Continue reading →

For You, On This Night, Separated by 8,000 Miles

You asked me: Have you forgotten ? You ask me this my love I reply: Nunca te olvides, jamás Nunca te dejo, jamás Nunca terminará mi amor para ti, jamás Nunca estarás, en mis ojos, menos de una estrella brillante, … Continue reading →

Oak Log

The sigh I hear The breath I feel The touch I await The scent from generations away I can find always You are you An oak log. I see you ——— 2017 Here

Upside Down, Inverted

Light becomes dark Water neither solid, liquid, nor gas Color gone Taste absent Sight has become blind The rose’s scent decaying flesh Touch means nothing This world – my life – is become inverted, upside down How ? Why ? … Continue reading →

Am I He ?

Reviewing the list of accusations So cruel and abusive I don’t recognize the man against whom these are made. Yet it is me. I am that unrecognizable man. How is it ? How does a life lived duty, service, honor … Continue reading →

This Silence

The cicada’s buzz I hear clearly Loving the sounds of the South The ocean’s roar never leaves my ears. Such is the beauty of the seaside. The seagulls scream as I interfere with their sunbathing Walking the sugar-white beach The … Continue reading →

I want you to know

so you know what I’m thinking …. …. …. 10 times 10 times 10 over and over

Was It A Dream ?

I saw this as if in real time Everything I knew and loved lost in real time Family, friends, skills struggled for over a lifetime A woman whom I love. Lost. What fool ignores Cassandra? Priam, how could you? I … Continue reading →

There is Fear, Muse

This is for you, Muse We spoke often of Plato and the Athenian generals: What is bravery? What is courage ? Bravery: doing what we must despite overwhelming fear Courage: the ability to extract fear, look at and understand it … Continue reading →

You’re Here, You Didn’t Run

You needn’t have stayed, there was only more sorrow to be had if you stood near me. But you were there. How could you believe ? You needn’t have stayed, sorrow heaped upon sorrow, sandwiched with pain. Yet, you believed … Continue reading →

Such Gifts I Offer

You flew, Muse, hearing all I would give to you all I had to offer: Pain Sorrow The wrath of family and friends. And why not ? Who would wish for these ? You flew, Muse, when offered these gifts … Continue reading →

A Note of Forgiveness to a Young Friend

Awakening after a night of lovemaking two lovers – one younger and one older – look at one another. He, staring into her deep blue eyes, drowning She, seeing the forest in the brown of his eyes Theirs had been … Continue reading →

What Crime ?

What crime did I commit ? Did I abuse as some Nazi butcher ? Did I throw young pregnant women, patriots, from helicopters in Argentina ? Did I break the fingers, before killing him, of Victor Jara ? Did I … Continue reading →

One Day, I Will Tell You: It’s Shame

One day, I don’t know when, I will say all of this to you. Maybe it will be the day you decide again I’m loved. Or perhaps just one future day But it will be one day. One day I … Continue reading →

I Know

Once we would have said “Purge the registers” Who even knows what that means today, this reference to boilers ? Today you might say “Clear the RAM” I know, my love – and you are my love – what you … Continue reading →

Sollozarás

To those who knew his much abused country his love the poet thundered, “sollozarás cuando conoces mi ternura” Yet, it is only a country How much more truth is there when I think of you sollozarás cuando conoces mi ternura … Continue reading →

I’m Noman, I’ve Noname

Cast off, discarded on the side of a hill once redolent with forest, flowers, life Now barren grey-black a slag heap teetering, near-sliding into the river remnant below I, too, am a slag heap cast off, used and discarded Balancing, … Continue reading →

I Am Cassandra

In the distance Joyous shouts and screams Children at play. Yet no smile crosses my lips, hearing this I am Cassandra I can see I know Yet what I know is unbelieved. Once I warned family, leaders This horse is … Continue reading →

How Much

Like the fish in her water It’s normal, second nature Like the eagle Held aloft on the strong arms of the wind Like our sister honey bee and her flowers Like the majestic oak and her leaves Like the stars … Continue reading →

What Can I Say ?

What is left to say to you, mi amor ? How might I resuscitate that heart – your heart – the one I wish to make mine ? I know your fear: What will be said ? Who will reject … Continue reading →

You’ve Returned

Muse, my muse for so long gone You’ve returned Entering my heart, touching my soul as you touch my mind and body, I again awaken. What is it in me you touch, awaken ? Some part, opened, released and from … Continue reading →

You Presume to Leave ?

A lover awakens and looking at her love has forgotten how she loved him and why. Opening his sleep filled eyes, her love sees, looking at her with such affection. What is it, my heart ?, he says to her, … Continue reading →

Like a Sufi

Dancing on the edge of the abyss circling, circling each pass a thanks given to god. Dancing on the edge of the abyss giving thanks. You step near me take my hand and together, skirts rising in a flying circle … Continue reading →

What You Give Me

What is it you’ve given me ? During this short time we’ve been an Us. What do I find, reviewing this life, mine ? Joy Light Love Kindness you’ve given. I drank this like a man meandering in from the … Continue reading →

Is It Strength ?

I dreamed of you my love last evening Not perhaps the dream I would have wished for…… something erotic, “make sure I’m balanced”. No, nothing like that. Those dreams don’t recur now. We walk through a flowered field. Shoulders brushing … Continue reading →

Hope, Savior and Killer

You laugh Not at the silly joke Not at the situation of us. You laugh at me at my hope. My love hope is all hope is the world hope is what was left, when, opened Pandora’s box released such … Continue reading →

To You In Two Pieces

1. How possible from two or three words three syllables uttered by you… Te amo I love you.. My heart soars, as an eagle soars on the winds of heaven My soul becomes Mandela-free after years of Chernobyl-like encasement Such … Continue reading →

It Started as a Story. I have No Idea How It Ends

This didn’t begin as a poem, it was a story Me trying to tell you what I saw, what I thought I had found in you. It went something like this: Alone, I have walked this path, for years. Surrounded … Continue reading →

You Enter My Shop, It’s Not a Mistake

There are so many different wines Sweet, blended, savory. Wines that are from one grape only My friend ! In this richness of wines why does picking up the wrong glass, an accident, make you so sad ? You’ve only … Continue reading →

I Know the Meaning of Words

What do words mean ? How can I not understand their meaning ? I see a rock, I call it a “rock”, πετρα, it is a rock. I see a bird. I say: This is a “bird”, πουλη. It is … Continue reading →

Created Daily

What is left me, so many months later ? Thrown Turned Glazed Fired Then, inadequate, discarded. Clay shards remain of a once solid vessel. Informed Crafted By your love and then, indifference. Clay shards. Crafted By the struggles of my … Continue reading →

A New Theory of Dementia

I know why, Nezha, in the twilight of our lives we begin to lose our mind, act as children, unable to dress, feed, clean ourselves. I now know what happens in old age. The accumulation of injustice, hypocrisy, unfairness. The … Continue reading →

A Chorus

The chorus of birds Your voice. The breeze gently touching my face, arms, chest Your caress. I long for you For your lips,your taste,your passion I long to touch you as you’ve never been touched I long for you to … Continue reading →

Fear

You say: You never tell me your fears. My fears are plain for you to see I say: My biggest fear is that if you know my fears, you will no longer love me. You say: How is that possible … Continue reading →

Brushing Past

Everywhere I walk On everything I touch I find the scent of you As if you’d just brushed by. Open door leading to a vestibule and…..unknown. The wailing call of the muzzein wafting from minaret to minaret. Streets so narrow … Continue reading →

My Honey

My heart breaks My honey My honey My honey Always a triplet Like the start of a poem now lost. Stanza of some remote song. My honey My honey My honey It repeats over and over Fluent aphasia ? My … Continue reading →

He Said

I Love You he said Like the rose-fingered dawn loves the morning, is the morning, as she climbs the lightening sky. I love you he said As the night, dark and deep, loves the moon, urging it to light the … Continue reading →

With You, Without You

How is time bent so? Minutes become years, hours lifetimes. An entire cycle of life, frozen when you are far. Then, with you. Hours are seconds. Tilting, the earth spins faster. That slowed cycle, suddenly, running away. Your power over … Continue reading →

Love’s Serenade

It was this way… Clear, sweet, cold water slaking a thirst Violet of lilacs Scent – yours ? – of a summer rose Gentle caress of a spring breeze – your lips ? – promising warmth, such warmth Love’s serenade … Continue reading →

Letter to an Indifferent – 1

Muse, dear muse Faintly, I still hear you crying, now laughing with Charon You are gone, yes You’ve let me go Now you can breathe freely Dear muse Do our dreams go on endlessly ? Could you not have shown … Continue reading →

Searching for an Island

You’ve left me nothing Remains Memories – Cafe y Te, Mercado San Miguel, Neruda’s Park. Sirens that draw me toward the abyss on which I teeter, try as I might to inch around it Nothing This Nothing from which there … Continue reading →

You are There

I look for you everywhere The kitchen nook where standing, you stroked my cheek That between-sofa space where one night, that last night I held you for a moment a lifetime a moment I look for you everywhere. I see … Continue reading →

Who was the Muse ?

The Muse had left or so I thought When all that remained of me was silence Empty, broken, a shell That sound was not tree fall, but my heart breaking The Muse had left or so I thought Wrong It … Continue reading →

Rose-Fingered Dawn

Rising Dawn dresses in her pastel pink-blue finery preparing to smile, to warm snow-covered fields blown-bare trees, standing alone Standing alone as a lover left by the one he loves Stripped bare Covered in wounds Unsteady on his feet Alone … Continue reading →

Night, the Parthenon

A soft breeze caresses shadows of stone columns, once so strong. Clearing the Parthenon, taking with it, as day ends, the music of Theodorakis, sung in Dalares’ voice. Left behind, my Persephanie, such sadness as, again, I hear the echo … Continue reading →

Water

I know this I’m sure We can even do the experiment Oxygen and hydrogen and just a spark…. Exothermia ! and water Similar materials…. go down the periodic table… Similar outcomes, but not water I know this. I’m sure, we … Continue reading →

For You, Persephanie

I will smile no tears at the end of this saga. Swimming, alone, far from land Silence. Only the swish of parting water. Smile, no fear You held, once, my heart in your hands. Saying: “This thing of love, this … Continue reading →

The Truth, This Sadness, This Joy

As Conrad wrote: “…my task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel – it is above all to make you see. That – and no … Continue reading →

Quien Fue Feliz ?

You deserved more I promised you no less than the truth But when you asked my response, a lie No, no ! Don’t laugh ! I know what you’re thinking I can see you: face transforming to a smile and … Continue reading →

I Hear You, Nezha

Can I know Understand Feel you ? Your life ? Decades of separation Cleft by time lived, histories, really Do I, Can I, know you ? Nightly we speak Yet I’m unsure I understand anything you tell me This chasm … Continue reading →

World Clock, My Memory

I knew once joy held her in my arms Fleeting, fleeting Joy – spring breaking a cold winter’s hold, sparrow chicks calling out from a nest in my chimney as their mother sings the love of all mothers, A question: … Continue reading →

What You’ve Given Me

So much do I owe for what you’ve given me allowing me to love you, being loved by you. No, no, not the obvious: Your honey scented kisses Olive-black eyes Slender Helen-like neck Breath dew-laden as you sleep, I lying … Continue reading →

Upon Arising

Upon rising this morning, as all others I pray to my gods. No, not those of the east nor of Rome. My gods: Humanity Justice Kindness Love. Pray that I may be worthy As rose-fingered Dawn begins her ascent into … Continue reading →

December 2012: Outside the Conference Hall, On a Bench with You

In the background Gülümcan. Gazing at the yellow orange dress of my forested hills readying themselves for winter’s coming, I search for you, no longer perching opposite me. Surrounded Alone Still lost, I remain in that past. It is December, … Continue reading →

That Day, October

Although gone It returns With it, the smells sights sounds That day October Dancing slowly Malou Holding you tightly Whispering Three times – 3/8 Walking Arm in arm That look ‘Can I kiss you ?’ Gardens Couples Children All in … Continue reading →

Quiet Night

On a quiet night Thoughts become a whisper The sound A smile A look A walk Conversation in a cafe The screams of the streets Silent now Only the sound of paired feet On a path Stretching until the end … Continue reading →

A Story Untold

I never told you this story one of many there wasn’t time to tell – remember these – that day, during Gezi, Taksim ? I was to hold you close and whisper to you But there was never time never … Continue reading →

I smile, thinking of you

At last the fall is broken – if only for a moment Have I touched down ? Hit bottom ? So deep, so dark Looking up I see shooting stars as when we were together embracing in our teserak So … Continue reading →

Sundered

I know you felt your silken touch on my skin, your sweet breath on my neck your gentle caress I know you Joy why have you left me ? Where have you gone ? What have I done ? Something….. … Continue reading →

Unwisely, and Too Well…..

Were I to have lived in a socialist paradise out of the sphere of this capitalist world would it still be so ? Would there still be a price to pay – and such a price – For having loved … Continue reading →

Who Is It ?

On that street walking. Proboscis searching for her dinner a gaily clad butterfly moves over the lips of the rose as my lips once moved gently over yours Who is it who brought such joy shone such light laughed the … Continue reading →

Crescent Moon

Sandhill Crane slowly slowly lifting off Crescent moon piece by piece disappearing slowly until nothing is left Blackness Only the twinkle of stars a reminder of the light that once was With waves lapping at our ankles like those little … Continue reading →

Noman, No man

All strength consumed in this battle To forgive To understand To not hate To not hate All I have all I am capeable of consumed to keep from crushing my head in my hands – as my heart is crushed … Continue reading →

People’s Rule

Why now ? How is it you’ve returned to me Why now ? What are you trying to tell me ? I see you still as if it were that first evening Dipilto Stooped from the loads carried Gnarled fingers … Continue reading →

Four Brief Poems of Love

1. Creeping above the horizon Regal blood-orange All potential Loss follows loss 2. Arm in arm cool morning breeze What will become of my green-eyed one ? 3. Water droplets coat the newly planted rose Facing nothingness demands seeing differently … Continue reading →