being a fräulein in a rough world


a history of origami
October 21, 2009, 6:09 pm
Filed under: a poem a day, gelesen, lesen

i can’t prove this but i can’t prove

you’re a good person though i suspect

you’re a good person.

you who opened the door.

you who tipped your hat.

you who ran into the fire and carried

the fire safely out.

(bob hicok)

read the whole history of origami here.



like a perhaps hand
September 1, 2009, 1:43 pm
Filed under: a poem a day

III

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

E. E. Cummings



praise the phenomenal birthday child!
August 3, 2009, 12:11 pm
Filed under: a poem a day, bekanntschaften

***

(There she sits at second floor

and spreading her words,

officially communicative

she knows that – )

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

She knows, and, yes, she knows –

It’s in the reach of my arms

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

(It’s easy and complex

as all beauty is

she knows it, as i said,

thinking that –)

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

(Yes, listen, she speaks,)

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

(It’s the subtle secret behind it all

The child’s game of self-respect

Worth a Nobel lecture,

Yet they wonder,

Still)

Men themselves have wondered

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them

They say they still can’t see.

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

(Yes, the lady is one of her own,

She knows, but she doesn’t offer,

She smiles within,

Because by)

Now you

(Really, you should)

understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,

(In the artworks she leaves,

the traces of her invisible routes,

but more than that

she knows it’s also)

The bend of my hair,

the palm of my hand,

The need of my care,

‘Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

***

Have a wonderful birthday, lady,

& keep blessing us with you being you*


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Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Maya Angelou



Gras fuer die Loewen!
December 4, 2008, 2:08 pm
Filed under: a poem a day, gelesen, lesen

Emails mit einem Freund, der von seinem Leben im Kongo erzaehlt, ueber Laendergrenzen schiebend lese ich im Augenwinkel diese Zeilen: “The trade of war is over”. Eine schoene Utopie, vielleicht nicht aus den Augen zu verlieren in diesen Zeiten. Schwerter zu “whipped-cream pastries”! Und Gras fuer die Loewen!

Peace

by STANLEY MOSS

The trade of war is over, there are no more battles,

but simple murder is still in.

The No God, Time, creeps his way,

universe after universe, like a great snapping turtle

opening its mouth wagging its tongue

to look like a worm or leech

so deceived hungry fish, every living thing

swims in to feed. Quarks long for dark holes,

atoms butter up molecules, protons do unto neutrons

what they would have neutrons do unto them.

The trade of war has been over so long,

the meaning of war in the O.E.D. is now “nonsense.”

In the Russian Efron Encyclopedia,

war, voina, means “dog shit”;

in the Littré, guerre is “a verse form, obsolete”;

in Germany, Krieg has become “a whipped-cream pastry”;

Sea of Words, the Chinese dictionary,

has war, zhan zheng, as “making love in public,”

while war in Arabic and Hebrew, with the same

Semitic throat, harb and milchamah, is defined

as “anything our distant grandfathers ate

we no longer find tempting—like the eyes of sheep.”

And lions eat grass.

 

(find it here)

 

///