Another autumnal poem (for Chris)

Lovely And Lifelike

A face at the end of the day
A cradle in day's dead leaves
A bouquet of naked rain
Every ray of sun hidden
Every fount of founts in the depths of the water
Every mirror of mirrors broken
A face in the scales of silence
A pebble among other pebbles
For the leaves last glimmers of day
A face like all the forgotten faces.

Paul Eluard (trans)

I hope that my other posting about Paul Eluard is accessible in the archives & not in "The Dark Zone" somewhere.

And taking a step back to the amateur hour (OK, my friend & critic, "a", does make a living from writing, but not usually writing poemtree - who does?, compared to number that make living writing other-than-poetry. Wonder if I can get away with calling it 'prosody' rather than just 'prose'.)

Here is "a's" possible revised version of

History of the World as a Day

Midnight:
1 Built from stardust in the deep deep dark
2 Then spinning ages under a furious sun
3 at long last life, then green, then breath
4 Then the spreading & growing
5 Life cradles the world,
6 From its heights to the depths to the uttermost reach.
7 Then the sparks in the night meet a mirror & blaze
8 A hand finds a stick, finds a stone finds seed
9 Killing & eating, a lemming-like spread
10 The bodies pile up and the crops grow well
11 Earth turns to dust, night to day, miles to minutes
12 Midnight again; we choose dawn or the dark.

I hope you have the original.
Print both (Ha ha) and compare.

Labels: poetry

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 4/06/2003 10:02:00 pm