(Poetry Reading at Jaffo)

Transparent heart
look into it as if it was a crystal ball
el corason del tiempo

I do no longer know
which half used to hold a secret
that cannot be told however dangerously we’re trying
to lean out of the window
of our mother tongue

wondering: what do they say?
Just listen: Nada Nada
Fievre y candor
the rough sensuous texture of this candor
containing its contrary more than itself:

all the way from Paradise to Inferno
as Munch said, in this one brush stroke touching
wounded canvas
Lost in silence, do you think?
O no, lost in words
steeped headlong in writing
silky and cool like the Mediterranean in late autumn
bitter and thick like buttermilk on a god’s table
like the waves of the Dead Sea in November

*
shriek of the bird invisible in its dark
remember the dragon sensuous coiling
around a 15th century young knight’s spear
while he rests, satiated, dreamy
having slain one or two monsters earlier in the day
and now we learn it: only the missing exist

*

Arab poet reaching out speaking to us
from the many open windows of his stanza: silk and stone
a few syllables have reached us
beneath the mountain of darkness and silence
the heart beats, untouched by this surrogate music
tin that once was gold

*
what’s going to trigger love, inspiration? they ask
does this happen like a spark? does it get ignited through fear?
fear out of all things, oh God, indeed?
and you, eternal child singing in the dark truly with fear
of death
darkness within touching darkness without
unspoken fear of that other, the partner the counter-part
- who wants to have the stamp of darkness on their face?

They’re now selling makeup that stays on your skin
for a whole day
so in the morning, remember?
you had all the tenderness in your fingers
thinking how to please – him - your heart soared
like a bird cutting high into the core of the blue.
And in the evening the makeup still there
and that tenderness from your fingers all gone
...Oh no, not true, not so - just kidding
smile to cover it up, smile your thin immaterial smile
while the flames consume you deep inside innocent, fierce
like the bite of the fox eating its way
into the young Spartan soldier’s body and he
standing upright motionless
bow frozen in hand

thus try to learn how to write a poem
that you can you will e-mail in an instant
and still have it written
like an ancient prayer carved in a rock