Members
It's an outward expression of my inward self without rules and rigid lines it's depressing at times or bright like sunshine sad, confused, angry it's …
17/F/South Africa
Half Zulu and half Sotho.
Tasmania
21. Aspiring novelist/poet. I am enchanted by enchanting things.
Poems
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2013
Ben-Oni, Son of Sorrow
Nat Lipstadt
Dec 2013
"Ben-Oni" is a Hebrew term meaning "son (Ben) of sorrow (oni)," and the name of an 1825 manuscript describing a chess opening.
"Whenever I felt in a sorrowful mood and wanted to take refuge from melancholy, I sat over a chessboard, for one or two hours according to circumstances. Thus this book came into being, and its name, Ben-Oni, 'Son of Sadness,' should indicate its origin." - Aaron Reinganum.
From the Old Testament,
Genesis 35:18;
“Her dying lips calls
her newborn son Ben-Oni,
the son of my sorrow.
But Jacob, because he would not
renew the sorrowful remembrance of his
mother's death every time
he called his son by name,
changed his name,
and called him Benjamin,
the son of my right hand."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ben-Oni, Son of Sorrow
Love,
you can fall in
and out of.
Happy,
comes and goes,
in waves,
cycles of differing amplitudes.
Its schedule of
arrivals and departures,
most erratic.
It is always
a two sided affair,
don't blame this messenger,
it's the way of the world
that it comes,
then it goes
Tho certain sorrows,
special, may
wax and wane,
they, a once, then a forever guest,
a full time resident,
taste, once acquired,
cannot be erased.
Part of your museum's
permanent collection,
an addiction affliction
that can't be undone,
be beat back,
ain't no emotional methadone,
to inhibit its delicious lows
Like a passerby,
a mound of stones espied,^
a grave marker au naturel,
compelled and compulsed,
duty bound to add a stone
to keep the pile intact and sound,
another 'sorrow' poem to add
to the internet's dustbin.
Sorrow,
a rich, old moneyed patron,
with a wealth of ancient lineage
orders and commands
yet another a poem
to celebrate its entrenchment
in our constitution personal
Son of Sorrow,
Son, Sorrow,
two conditions,
one necessary and
one sufficient,
combined,
a logical causality,
or a casus belli.
If you spoke Hebrew,
understood you would
the quality of the sound of
Oni.
It is a soundless sigh,
a virulent scream, part wail,
part exclamation, part groan,
say it slow - oh nee.
You alone,
a father,
can own,
the sorrow of a son,
who denies you.
It cannot be denied,
expiated, signed away,
a syllable of grief
that says mine, all mine.
Watching the sun push away
the backdrop,
the stage curtain of the randomized
but they a-keep-on-coming,
summer thunderstorms
that have scattered
all living creatures
to the comforts,
the shelter
of loved ones,
but yours, present, or not,
return your message
either marked "well received'
or sadly, postmarked
"addressee unknown, get lost."
Curse me to stop,
and I can't,
already accursed,
add your curse to my collection,
makes no difference to my pile,
of sorrowfully fresh recollections
We slept together,
so many good night moon
stories read,
pillows shared,
side by side,
a stock exchange of
kisses and hugs,
trades that can't be cancelled,
having been entered officially
on the books and records of
our-sorrowful hearts.
Lesser men
cry to themselves,
their loneliness, their tragedy
a soliloquy, revealed in a
one man show,
Off Brodway,
before an audience of none.
Not me kid, my oni,
is a public theater
of a visible shriek
in every breathe,
but the Supreme Court
gone and ruled against me,
and now there is no possibility
of injunctive relief.
Will travel to faraway lands,
asking different courts
for a hearing, knowing full well,
that I will be plea-denied,
having no standing,
for here,
there and everywhere
I lack proofs
and my son-accuser
wears masks and presents
no charges,
and even if he did,
I would gladly confess,
if he but presented them
face to face.
Son of Sorrow,
Son, Sorrow,
two conditions,
one necessary and
one sufficient,
combined,
a logical causality,
or a casus belli.
Come let us exchange
new names, new poems,
for we, though both poets,
do not read each other's
Works.
It is time.
"Whenever I felt in a sorrowful mood and wanted to take refuge from melancholy, I sat over a chessboard, for one or two hours according to circumstances. Thus this book came into being, and its name, Ben-Oni, 'Son of Sadness,' should indicate its origin." - Aaron Reinganum.
From the Old Testament,
Genesis 35:18;
“Her dying lips calls
her newborn son Ben-Oni,
the son of my sorrow.
But Jacob, because he would not
renew the sorrowful remembrance of his
mother's death every time
he called his son by name,
changed his name,
and called him Benjamin,
the son of my right hand."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ben-Oni, Son of Sorrow
Love,
you can fall in
and out of.
Happy,
comes and goes,
in waves,
cycles of differing amplitudes.
Its schedule of
arrivals and departures,
most erratic.
It is always
a two sided affair,
don't blame this messenger,
it's the way of the world
that it comes,
then it goes
Tho certain sorrows,
special, may
wax and wane,
they, a once, then a forever guest,
a full time resident,
taste, once acquired,
cannot be erased.
Part of your museum's
permanent collection,
an addiction affliction
that can't be undone,
be beat back,
ain't no emotional methadone,
to inhibit its delicious lows
Like a passerby,
a mound of stones espied,^
a grave marker au naturel,
compelled and compulsed,
duty bound to add a stone
to keep the pile intact and sound,
another 'sorrow' poem to add
to the internet's dustbin.
Sorrow,
a rich, old moneyed patron,
with a wealth of ancient lineage
orders and commands
yet another a poem
to celebrate its entrenchment
in our constitution personal
Son of Sorrow,
Son, Sorrow,
two conditions,
one necessary and
one sufficient,
combined,
a logical causality,
or a casus belli.
If you spoke Hebrew,
understood you would
the quality of the sound of
Oni.
It is a soundless sigh,
a virulent scream, part wail,
part exclamation, part groan,
say it slow - oh nee.
You alone,
a father,
can own,
the sorrow of a son,
who denies you.
It cannot be denied,
expiated, signed away,
a syllable of grief
that says mine, all mine.
Watching the sun push away
the backdrop,
the stage curtain of the randomized
but they a-keep-on-coming,
summer thunderstorms
that have scattered
all living creatures
to the comforts,
the shelter
of loved ones,
but yours, present, or not,
return your message
either marked "well received'
or sadly, postmarked
"addressee unknown, get lost."
Curse me to stop,
and I can't,
already accursed,
add your curse to my collection,
makes no difference to my pile,
of sorrowfully fresh recollections
We slept together,
so many good night moon
stories read,
pillows shared,
side by side,
a stock exchange of
kisses and hugs,
trades that can't be cancelled,
having been entered officially
on the books and records of
our-sorrowful hearts.
Lesser men
cry to themselves,
their loneliness, their tragedy
a soliloquy, revealed in a
one man show,
Off Brodway,
before an audience of none.
Not me kid, my oni,
is a public theater
of a visible shriek
in every breathe,
but the Supreme Court
gone and ruled against me,
and now there is no possibility
of injunctive relief.
Will travel to faraway lands,
asking different courts
for a hearing, knowing full well,
that I will be plea-denied,
having no standing,
for here,
there and everywhere
I lack proofs
and my son-accuser
wears masks and presents
no charges,
and even if he did,
I would gladly confess,
if he but presented them
face to face.
Son of Sorrow,
Son, Sorrow,
two conditions,
one necessary and
one sufficient,
combined,
a logical causality,
or a casus belli.
Come let us exchange
new names, new poems,
for we, though both poets,
do not read each other's
Works.
It is time.
I have a first born son who I rarely see and only, very, very occasionally hear from, and then it is by email or text. I do not judge for he is the product of my *****, and who cannot wonder if...
^a Jewish custom is to place a small stone on the tombstone you are visiting at a cemetery. The custom, ancient, is derived from when a mound of stones would be a marker of a burial. It became customary for a passerby to add a stone to the mound to perpetuate its existence.
^a Jewish custom is to place a small stone on the tombstone you are visiting at a cemetery. The custom, ancient, is derived from when a mound of stones would be a marker of a burial. It became customary for a passerby to add a stone to the mound to perpetuate its existence.
Stefano Benni Jun 2017
Le piccole cose
Le piccole cose
che amo di te
quel tuo sorriso
un po' lontano
il gesto lento della mano
con cui mi accarezzi i capelli
e dici: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e io dico: caro
sei un po' matto
e a letto svegliarsi
col tuo respiro vicino
e sul comodino
il giornale della sera
la tua caffettiera
che canta, in cucina
l'odore di pipa
che fumi la mattina
il tuo profumo
un po' balsé
il tuo buffo gilet
le piccole cose
che amo di te
Quel tuo sorriso
strano
il gesto continuo della mano
con cui mi tocchi i capelli
e ripeti: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e io dico: caro
me l'hai già detto
e a letto sveglia
sentendo il tuo respiro
un po' affannato
e sul comodino
il bicarbonato
la tua caffettiera
che sibila in cucina
l'odore di pipa
anche la mattina
il tuo profumo
un po' demodé
le piccole cose
che amo di te
Quel tuo sorriso beota
la mania idiota
di tirarmi i capelli
e dici: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e ti dico: cretino,
comprati un parrucchino!
E a letto stare sveglia
e sentirti russare
e sul comodino
un tuo calzino
e la tua caffettiera
che é esplosa
finalmente, in cucina!
La pipa che impesta
fin dalla mattina
il tuo profumo
di scimpanzé
quell'orrendo gilet
le piccole cose
che amo di te.
che amo di te
quel tuo sorriso
un po' lontano
il gesto lento della mano
con cui mi accarezzi i capelli
e dici: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e io dico: caro
sei un po' matto
e a letto svegliarsi
col tuo respiro vicino
e sul comodino
il giornale della sera
la tua caffettiera
che canta, in cucina
l'odore di pipa
che fumi la mattina
il tuo profumo
un po' balsé
il tuo buffo gilet
le piccole cose
che amo di te
Quel tuo sorriso
strano
il gesto continuo della mano
con cui mi tocchi i capelli
e ripeti: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e io dico: caro
me l'hai già detto
e a letto sveglia
sentendo il tuo respiro
un po' affannato
e sul comodino
il bicarbonato
la tua caffettiera
che sibila in cucina
l'odore di pipa
anche la mattina
il tuo profumo
un po' demodé
le piccole cose
che amo di te
Quel tuo sorriso beota
la mania idiota
di tirarmi i capelli
e dici: vorrei
averli anch'io così belli
e ti dico: cretino,
comprati un parrucchino!
E a letto stare sveglia
e sentirti russare
e sul comodino
un tuo calzino
e la tua caffettiera
che é esplosa
finalmente, in cucina!
La pipa che impesta
fin dalla mattina
il tuo profumo
di scimpanzé
quell'orrendo gilet
le piccole cose
che amo di te.
Mateuš Conrad
Mar 2016
i only started collecting a library, because, would you believe it, my local library was a pauper in rags and tatters; apologies for omitting necessary diacritic marks, the whiskey was ******* on icecubes to a shrivel.*
ernest hemingway, e.m. forster, mary shelley,
aesop, r. l. stevenson, jean-paul sartre,
jack kerouac, sylvia plath, evelyn waugh,
chekhov, cortazar, freud, virginia woolf,
philip k. ****, dostoyevsky, aleksandr solzhenitsyn,
oscar wilde, malcolm x, kafka, nabokov,
bukowski, sacher-masoch, thomas a kempis,
yevgeny zamyatin, alexandre dumas,
will self, j. r. r. tolkien, richard b. bentall,
james joyce, william burroughs, truman capote,
herman hesse, thomas mann, j. d. salinger,
nikos kazantzakis, george orwell,
philip roth, joseph roth, bulgakov, huxley,
marquis de sade, john milton, samuel beckett,
huysmans, michel de montaigne, walter benjamin,
sienkiewicz, rilke, lipton, harold norse,
alfred jarry, miguel de cervantes, von krafft-ebing,
kierkegaard, julian jaynes, bynum porter & shephred,
r. d. laing, c. g. jung, spinoza, hegel, kant, artistotle,
plato, josephus, korner, la rochefoucauld, stendhal,
nietzsche, bertrand russell, irwin edman,
faucault, anwicenna, descartes, voltaire, rousseau,
popper, heidegger, tatarkiewicz, kolakowski,
seneca, cycero, milan kundera, g. j. warnock,
stefan zweig, the pre-socratics, julian tuwim,
ezra pound, gregory corso, ted hughes,
guiseppe gioacchino belli, dante, peshwari women,
e. e. cummings, ginsberg, will alexander, max jacob,
schwob, william blake, comte de lautreamont,
jack spicer, zbigniew herbert, frank o'hara,
richard brautigan, miroslav holub, al purdy,
tzara, ted berrigan, fady joudah, nikolai leskov,
anna kavan, jean genet, albert camus, gunter grass,
susan hill, katherine dunn, gil scott-heron,
kleist, irvine welsh, clarice lispector, hunter thompson,
machado de assisi, reymont, tolstoy, jim bradbury,
norman davies, shakespeare, balzac, dickens,
jasienica, mary fulbrook, stuart t. miller,
walter la feber, jan wimmer, terry jones & alan ereira,
kenneth clark, edward robinson, heinrich harrer,
gombrowicz, a. krawczuk, andrzej stasiuk, ivan bunin,
joseph heller, goethe, mcmurry, atkins & de paula,
bernard shaw, horace, ovid, virgil, aeschyles,
rumi, omar khayyam, humbert wolfe, e. h. bickersteth,
asnyk, witkacy, mickiewicz, slowacki, lesmian,
lechon, lep szarzynski, victor alexandrov, gogol,
william styron, krasznahorkai, robert graves,
defoe, tim burton, antoine de saint-exupery,
christiane f., salman rushdie, hazlitt, marcus aurelius,
nick hornby, emily bronte, walt whitman,
aryeh kaplan, rolf g. renner, j. p. hodin, tim hilton... etc.
ernest hemingway, e.m. forster, mary shelley,
aesop, r. l. stevenson, jean-paul sartre,
jack kerouac, sylvia plath, evelyn waugh,
chekhov, cortazar, freud, virginia woolf,
philip k. ****, dostoyevsky, aleksandr solzhenitsyn,
oscar wilde, malcolm x, kafka, nabokov,
bukowski, sacher-masoch, thomas a kempis,
yevgeny zamyatin, alexandre dumas,
will self, j. r. r. tolkien, richard b. bentall,
james joyce, william burroughs, truman capote,
herman hesse, thomas mann, j. d. salinger,
nikos kazantzakis, george orwell,
philip roth, joseph roth, bulgakov, huxley,
marquis de sade, john milton, samuel beckett,
huysmans, michel de montaigne, walter benjamin,
sienkiewicz, rilke, lipton, harold norse,
alfred jarry, miguel de cervantes, von krafft-ebing,
kierkegaard, julian jaynes, bynum porter & shephred,
r. d. laing, c. g. jung, spinoza, hegel, kant, artistotle,
plato, josephus, korner, la rochefoucauld, stendhal,
nietzsche, bertrand russell, irwin edman,
faucault, anwicenna, descartes, voltaire, rousseau,
popper, heidegger, tatarkiewicz, kolakowski,
seneca, cycero, milan kundera, g. j. warnock,
stefan zweig, the pre-socratics, julian tuwim,
ezra pound, gregory corso, ted hughes,
guiseppe gioacchino belli, dante, peshwari women,
e. e. cummings, ginsberg, will alexander, max jacob,
schwob, william blake, comte de lautreamont,
jack spicer, zbigniew herbert, frank o'hara,
richard brautigan, miroslav holub, al purdy,
tzara, ted berrigan, fady joudah, nikolai leskov,
anna kavan, jean genet, albert camus, gunter grass,
susan hill, katherine dunn, gil scott-heron,
kleist, irvine welsh, clarice lispector, hunter thompson,
machado de assisi, reymont, tolstoy, jim bradbury,
norman davies, shakespeare, balzac, dickens,
jasienica, mary fulbrook, stuart t. miller,
walter la feber, jan wimmer, terry jones & alan ereira,
kenneth clark, edward robinson, heinrich harrer,
gombrowicz, a. krawczuk, andrzej stasiuk, ivan bunin,
joseph heller, goethe, mcmurry, atkins & de paula,
bernard shaw, horace, ovid, virgil, aeschyles,
rumi, omar khayyam, humbert wolfe, e. h. bickersteth,
asnyk, witkacy, mickiewicz, slowacki, lesmian,
lechon, lep szarzynski, victor alexandrov, gogol,
william styron, krasznahorkai, robert graves,
defoe, tim burton, antoine de saint-exupery,
christiane f., salman rushdie, hazlitt, marcus aurelius,
nick hornby, emily bronte, walt whitman,
aryeh kaplan, rolf g. renner, j. p. hodin, tim hilton... etc.