Book of I

I

Pushing upward in the deserted city,
Pushing Upward, chapter forty six,
Lying line number three.
Changing into: Gathering (chapter forty five):
The King steps into his temple and consults the great.
Heading south, fortune! 

II

"Truthful You, I, I, false and fearful, blind,
perplexed with Age and Absurdity?"
Gradual Progress, chapter fifty three,
Tree on the Mountain, Sun above, a River,
The conjugal procession. No lying lines.
Nothing (ever) changes; Incomprehension persists. 

III

Power at Large: all but two lies, from the toe up;
Chapter thirty four; Thunder above Heaven.
No vigor; I cast my net, entangle my horn.
Bushy barrier burned; at large?
Upright, robust, a hero with no regrets, (but) not a god?
Second six-liner, (two); Lady Earth, from North-East to South-West.

IV

Eleven, Flow, difficulty in the extreme:
Empty crossing River leaving all behind--lying and gaining honors.
Great comes, petty goes; This is his measures.
He is the ladder between Heaven and Earth,
Lying and with no shame bedding down his daughter. (sixty three),
Already Settled; and little by little, no pattern at the end. 

V

First lie: Blameless leaving quickly.
Decrease, chapter forty one; two small plates.
At the foot of Mountain Lake.
Rage subsided, desire detained; supreme success.
Increasing, greater than ten pairs of tortoises, second lie.
Wind disperses Water, King building his Temple (fifty nine).  

VI

Words not trusted, yours, I,  Alone in the valley of shadows.
Tree ascending Confined; following First Confidence.
Lake above River; there is a mandate.
Within a bronze chariot: lying ends; Shame?
Following the Last; River above Lake.
Sweet Measures exacting Articulation.   
(Farvardin 1, 1391--March 20, 2012)








 

Mulberry

Mulberry


Apples and Pomegranates, Figs and Olives;
Sycamore, Poplar, Cypress, Cedar,
What i s the difference?
I don't know; I was saved,
For the first time, from myself,
When I was seventeen,
And I am now far and away
Not a botanical expert.

But this much I know, remember:
A long time ago,
Right before I left the West of Wishiwash River for good,
In the State of Who'sthere and Who'snot,
At the crossing of a sinful alleyway, 
With a blistering Noontide of Judgment,
I found, without much effort, a mulberry tree,
Which shed its own blood everyday,
Underneath the sinners' step.
And so far as I observed,
Not once one of them stopped on his way,
Never to look up at the trunk, twigs, limbs or branches,
Nor below, at the bloodied pavement,
Let alone ever taste the tempting vintage.
And if one early morning,
One of them saw me with my bowl in my hand,
Plucking and devouring, (and gathering for my friend),
He would stare at me as though I had gone mad,
Or was from a savage land,
Wondering if I knew,
Whether or not I would be poisoned.
O what a blissful ignorance!

Here too, now,  somewhere, in an obscure corner,
On one of the fingers of this island,
There is another mulberry tree,
But she is far from me, quite inaccessible, not on my way,
And besides,
I suspect others than me have already discovered,
How a mulberry actually tastes.



 

The Outlaw

The Outlaw

God must have known, when he was creating the world and molding Adam and Eve, and establishing His Order, and instituting His Law, that there would be human beings so remarkable in the excellence of their constitutions, in the vastness of their hearts, in the height of their souls, in the strength of their characters, and in the infinity of their passion for Truth, Beauty and Goodness, that He would be, at the end of His Days, proudest for having created THEM, but who, at the same time, and for the exact same reasons mentioned above, would never accept the mastery of anyone over themselves, not even His, who would never be slave to anyone and anything, not even to Him, who would never obey laws, any law, not even His--they are the o u t l a w s, they are their own law, that is why He would be proudest of them, He might have created the world to be seen, but not by any old dirty eye, but by the eyes of such humans--, who would never accept that they themselves are not masters, are not supreme, are not God, NEVER!

And for those, to submit to another MAN's rule, to prostrate before another MAN?