point of view
217
The Best
India has the best Ice Cream
America has the best Chocolate
England has the best Phlegm
Spain has the best Worms
Italy has the best Mist
Israel has the best Self-Mockery
Canada has the best Light
Mexico has the best Eagles
Portugal has the best Circles
Egypt has the best Paper
Morocco has the best Jews
Japan has the best Creases
I've been to too many countries
I died when I left Montreal
I met women I didn't understand
I pretended to get interested in food
But it was all The Fear of Snow
It was all the Will of God
It was all The Heart
swallowing The Other Organs
It was Five Days of Summer
and Two Days of Spring
Mostly it was the Death of my Dog
Sorrow is the time to begin
Longing is the place to rejoice
But I did not begin
Longing is the place to rejoice
But I did not begin
and I did not rejoice
I was lazy in God Books lie open all around me
Despite my efforts
they keep coming into my room
And there is a slab of old stone
with cuneiform inscriptions
When I lived in Montreal
I knew what to wear
I had old clothes
and old friends
and my dog had been dead
for only ten or fifteen years
218
Fortunately there is no space for regret
in the Poverty of these Reflections
219
Not So Friendly
Not so friendly today,
are you, darling?
I, too, find myself
in a distant mood.
Maybe it's time
to take the long way home,
the back streets
where we will be assaulted
by thugs
because we are rich,
and spit on by old women
who don't like
your bare arms.
Then how about
caramel custard
In that place they know us?
Yes, I'm feeling better
about you, already.
I'm looking forward
to our white hotel room
where the two puppets
can be naked at last,
and in each other's arms,
surrender to the strings.
220
You Have Loved Enough
I came to You with sorrow –
You said,"Come to me with bread”.
I could not make a living –
You employed me with the dead.
I chose the marble chambers –
But You sent me down below.
You kept me from believing
Until You let me know:
That I am not the one who loves –
It's Love that seizes me!
When hatred with his package comes,
You forbid delivery.
And when the hunger for Your touch
rises from the hunger,
You whisper, "Child ,you've loved enough,
now let Me be the Lover".
221
Alexandra Leaving
(based on The God Abandons Anthony,a poem by Constantine P. Cavafy)
Suddenly the night has grown colder.
Some deity preparing to depart.
Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder,
they slip between the sentries of your heart.
Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure,
they gain the light, they formlessly entwine;
and radiant beyond your widest measure
they fall among the voices and the wine.
lt's not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
a fitful dream the morning will exhaust---
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving,
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Even though she sleeps upon your satin.
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined,
Do not stoop to strategies like this.
As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music, Alexandra laughing.
Your first commitments tangible again.
You who had the honor of her evening,
And by that honor had your own restored---
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Alexandra leaving with her lord.
As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked---
Do not choose a coward's explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect,
222
You who were bewildered by a meaning,
whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed---
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
223
Because Of A Few Songs
Because of a few songs
wherein I spoke of their
mystery,
women have been
exceptionally kind
to my old age.
They make a secret place
in their busy lives
and they take me there.
They become naked
in their different ways
and they say,
"Look at me, Leonard
look at me one last time."
Then they bend over the bed
and cover me up
like a baby that is shivering.
224
Promise
I will never
return
the Holy Grail
to its
"rightful owners."
225
The Correct Attitude
Except for a couple of hours
in the morning
which I passed in the company
of a sage
I stayed in bed
without food
only a few mouthfuls of water
“you are a fine looking old man”
I said to myself in the mirror
“and what is more
you have the correct attitude
You don’t care if it ends
or if it goes on
And as for the women
and the music
there will be plenty of that
in Paradise”
Then I went to the Mosque
of Memory
to express my gratitude
226
Mercy Returns To Me
A woman I want -
An honour I covet -
A place where I want my mind to dwell -
Then Mercy returns me
To the fretboard
And the problems of the song.
227
Good Advice For Someone Like Me
behind the pain
someone is rejoicing
behind the torture
there is love
who's going to buy
this bullshit
if you don't become the ocean
you'll be seasick
every day
228
Thousands
Out of the thousands
who are known,
or who want to be known
as poets,
maybe one or two
are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred
precincts
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say
I am one of the fakes,
and this is my story
229
A Life Of Errands
If You Are Lucky
You Will Grow Old
And Live
A Life Of Errands.
You Will Discern
What People Need
And Provide It
Before They Ask.
You Will Drive Your Car
Here And There
Delivering And Fetching
And Neither The Traffic
Nor The Weather
Will Bother You
In The Least.
You Will Whip Down The 405
To San Diego
To Pick Up An Acorn
For Someone's Proverb
And So On And So Forth.
In Spite Of The Ache
In Your Heart
About The Girl You
Never Found
And The Fact That
After Years Of
Spiritual Rigor You Did Not Manage
To Enlighten Yourself
A Certain Cheerfulness
Will Begin To
Arise Out Of Your Crushed
Hopes And Intentions.
How Thirstily
You Embrace Your Next Commission:
To Sift Through The Sunglasses
At A Lost And Found
In Las Vegas
Just A Few Hours
Across The Desert.
230
Your Hair Is White
You Have Breasts
And A Gut
Over Your Belt
You Are No Longer A Boy,
Or Even A Man
But A Sense Of Gratitude
Enlivens Every Move You Make.
Yes, Sir, These Are The
Very Gold-Rimmed Pair
She Left In The Plastic Tray
Beside The Dollar Slot Machines.
No, Sir, I Am Not Lying.
231
Hospitality
drinking cognac
with the old man –
......his exquisite hospitality
in the
