"azores" poems
I go to the door often.
Night and summer. Crickets
lift their cries.
I know you are out.
You are driving
late through the summer night.
I do not know what will happen.
I have no claim on you.
I am one star
you have as guide; others
love you, the night
so dark over the Azores.
You have been working outdoors,
gone all week. I feel you
in this lamp lit
so late. As I reach for it
I feel myself
driving through the night.
I love a firmness in you
that disdains the trivial
and regains the difficult.
You become part then
of the firmness of night,
the granite holding up walls.
There were women in Egypt who
supported with their firmness the stars
as they revolved,
hardly aware
of the passage from night
to day and back to night.
I love you where you go
through the night, not swerving,
clear as the indigo
bunting in her flight,
passing over two
thousand miles of ocean.
11.1k
We were west of the Azores,
Five days out of New York,
when we spotted the Mary Celeste.
She was listing to Leeward
But still under sail
with no obvious sign of distress.
Briggs, Her captain, I knew
as a man good and true
And his shipmates
were capable men.
We hailed, but no answer,
So I send men aboard
To find out what had become of them.
Her cargo intact, just one lifeboat gone
And a rope that trailed aft in the sea.
Something had caused them
To abandon their ship
but why was a mystery to me.
There are storms on the Ocean
As winter draws near;
A sea grave was his crew's likely fate
Or else they were drifting
Ever farther from shore
with nothing to eat on their plates.
I gave thanks to God’s grace
that cold, indifferent Fate’s
bony fingers had not touched on me
and I wept for my friends
of the Mary Celeste
who would never
come home from the sea.
Aug 18, 2014
Aug 18, 2014 at 11:49 AM UTC
This plot of ground
facing the waters of this inlet
is dedicated to the living presence of
Emily Dickinson Wellcome
who was born in England; married;
lost her husband and with
her five year old son
sailed for New York in a two-master;
was driven to the Azores;
ran adrift on Fire Island shoal,
met her second husband
in a Brooklyn boarding house,
went with him to Puerto Rico
bore three more children, lost
her second husband, lived hard
for eight years in St. Thomas,
Puerto Rico, San Domingo, followed
the oldest son to New York,
lost her daughter, lost her “baby,”
seized the two boys of
the oldest son by the second marriage
mothered them—they being
motherless—fought for them
against the other grandmother
and the aunts, brought them here
summer after summer, defended
herself here against thieves,
storms, sun, fire,
against flies, against girls
that came smelling about, against
drought, against weeds, storm-tides,
neighbors, weasels that stole her chickens,
against the weakness of her own hands,
against the growing strength of
the boys, against wind, against
the stones, against trespassers,
against rents, against her own mind.
She grubbed this earth with her own hands,
domineered over this grass plot,
blackguarded her oldest son
into buying it, lived here fifteen years,
attained a final loneliness and—
If you can bring nothing to this place
but your carcass, keep out.
2.4k
*Hail to Caesar now, Zeig Heil
Noble Eagle Standard flies,
Schutzstaffel in midnight legion
Disciplined long stabbing knives.
Heil to goose stepped march precision
Noble Eagle Standard soars,
Centurian’s in closed division
Screaming stukas strafe azores.
Fist to leather armour snapping
Stiff arms high in thronged salute,
Hail to Caesar sing the Legions
Zeig Heil Waffen SS brute.
Discipline of Shield defences
Stabbing lances follow swords
Clouds of arrows fill the heaven
Dachau’s ovens roast the hoards.
Winged Aquila flies the column
Wielded high as Roman’s would,
Black and white with red blood running
Swastikas where Jews once stood.
Europe caste in corpses rotting
Women screaming in the land,
Deutsch and Roman locked forever
Destroyers both, in history’s hand.*
Marshalg
In response to Anselm’s “Two Translations”
25 March 2013
On a cool and dry Autumn afternoon.
Mar 25, 2013
Mar 25, 2013 at 1:44 AM UTC
Vaguely lit by the summer moon of dark blue, pierced with light; the river murmurs, the devils paladins; lies in wait for more than a thousand years! the evening shadows pulling faces, the hidden window. Of worlds on a journey, a thousand years sad ophelia. Has murmured its ballad, the paladins are dancing. Sighing around her through this horror of space. The black gallows moans, and to all these worlds his black puppets weep on her shoulder, of an eternal voice unfathomable space; I no longer felt myself, I have seen malstroms eternal, devouring the green azores, where the eyes of panthers trembled to feel, down into the abysses! the black gallows moans.
Jun 13, 2013
Jun 13, 2013 at 1:08 PM UTC
*Riding backwards on a train
Leaning my head into the window
Seeing my own reflection – Clackity
Clack – Clickity Clackity Clickety Clack,
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clack.
What I see in the passing frames
Bridges, houses, brown fields
And rough terrains.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clickety Clack.
There goes an old barn beside an Azores tree
There goes an Azores tree beside an old barn
My God there goes another one – that’s three
Clackity Clack, Clackity Clack, Clickity, Clickity
Don’t talk back, Clickity Clack.
Telephone poles all passing as one
Streets and warehouses, street signs
And red lights – green and now a nun
Clackity Clack, Clackity Clack
Don’t talk back, Clackity Clickity Clack.
Into the tunnel we clamber and scramble
Concrete walls all painted with daises
So close to the glass we go into this gamble.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack, Clackety Clickety
Are we coming back, Clackity Clack.
Deep under the bay we travel
As loud and deep as the devil.
All held back by nothing but gravel.
Clackity Clack, Clickity Clack
Please don’t crack, Clackity Clack
When all at once into the terminal we fly
We made it – me – myself and I
Slowing to almost a crawl - good-bye!
Clackity, Clackity, Clackity Clack
Next time I’ll check my Zodiac.*
Jun 1, 2017
Jun 1, 2017 at 11:55 AM UTC
We were west of the Azores,
Five days out of New York,
when we spotted the Mary Celeste.
She was listing to Leeward
But still under sail
with no obvious sign of distress.
Briggs, Her captain, I knew
as a man good and true
And his shipmates
were capable men.
We hailed, but no answer,
So I send men aboard
To find out what had become of them.
Her cargo intact, just one lifeboat gone
And a rope that trailed aft in the sea.
Something had caused them
To abandon their ship
but why was a mystery to me.
There are storms on the Ocean
As winter draws near;
A sea grave was their likely fate
Or else they were drifting
Ever farther from shore
with nothing to eat on their plates.
I gave thanks to God’s grace
that cold, indifferent Fate’s
bony fingers had not touched on me
and I wept for my friends
of the Mary Celeste
who would never
come home from the sea.
Oct 31, 2013
Oct 31, 2013 at 11:26 PM UTC
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
Mi profesión es hacer disparos al aire.
Todavía no habré descendido la primera nube. 1
Mas, la delicia está en curvar el arco
y en suponer la flecha donde la clava el ojo. 2
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
¡Azores y neblíes, gerifaltes, tagres, sacres, alcotanes, halcones
acudid a la voz del acontista!
y enderecemos nuestras garras a la conquista
de las nubes, volubles como los corazones... 3
y -cual los corazones- inmutables.
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
También he sido juglar en los mesones.
Revendedor de bulas.
Tañedor de laúd.
Y tragador de fuego y engullidor de sables.
Y bufón en las ferias.
Damas de los castillos a catar diéronme frutos de acendrada virtud:
¡noches de bendición!
Otras noches fueron bien miserables.
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
También me he entretenido en cosas serias:
conocí al asno de Buridán 4
y al propio Buridán, que estuvo en la Tour de Nesle 5
(alguna vez fui con él,
pero me devolví de la poterna)
y vi ahorcar en Montfaucon 6
a Messire Enguerrand de Marigny.
Poco en letras leí... 7
mas sí he bebido buenos vinos, paladeado vianda tierna,
y comido del mejor pan.
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
Mi profesión es hacer disparos al aire.
¿Todavía no habré descendido la primera nube? 8
También soy jugador de dados
y tengo mis ribetes de asesino.
Presumo haber -en lontana ocasión- hurtádome los vasos sagrados 9
de ya no sé qué iglesia, abadía o convento.
(Creo que han sido mías varias esposas de Jesús,
cuyos votos de castidad y su amor al esposo divino
fueron plumas al viento
y golondrinas migratorias que soltaron su vuelo desde la Cruz...)
¡Azores y neblíes, gerifaltes, tagres, sacres, alfaneques, halcones:
acudid a la voz del acontista!
Y enderecemos nuestras garras y nuestros picos a la conquista
de las nubes volubles como los corazones... 10
y -cual los corazones- siempre iguales.
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
También resulto un poco lento y un mucho largo en las mis relaciones...
Juzgo que hay caso de fantasía en mi rapsodia:
pero ni yo soy Tácito, ni aquestos son Anales...
¡Tampoco he de cantar la palinodia
ni de irrumpir en monótonos trenos!
Yo, señor, soy acontista.
Nada más. Nada menos.
Y tengo sueño y tengo sed, señor. ¡Salud! ¡Y abur! señor, ¡abur! Y hasta otra vista.
1.2k
Brotan ahora todos los sueños, surtidores canoros
(ruiseñores bulbules), -palmeras esteli-dáctilas (verdegayes Apolos,
Marsyas zinzolines y Momos policromos)-,
surten, irruyen todos los sueños: voces viriles (sobran gorjeos y gorgoritos y gorigoros).
Saltan ahora todos los sueños, alcotanes y neblíes y azores, -desde sus hórreos-,
halietos, gerifaltes, halcones borníes eufóricos
y tagres y alfaneques y sacres y esparveres jubilosos!
(No a la caza de pieza alguna! ¡No llevan rumbo ni meta ni piloto, 1
ni derrotero ni objetivo! ¡Vacantes son y en huelga, sueños ensueños en ocio!).
Saltan ahora todos los sueños, a que zozobren -procelarias- en los Pontos;
saltan, para que el Viento espárzalos, alíferos farautes estentóreos,
¡a que el Viento dispérselos, favilas hechas Coros!
888
Say I was a sea captain in that life.
Say I sailed a barkentine, the Eloise,
on the Azores run out of Lisbão.
I was a sea captain in that life.
I sailed a barkentine, the Eloise,
on the Azores run out of Lisbão.
I found a green disc under my bunk
and instantly knew its use.
You have taken my books.
You're no sea captain.
The color you paint your toenails
is that of weathered brass.
The salt on your neck
and in your navel tastes
vaguely impure, like spray - delicious.
Say I was a sea captain.
Say I had a dinghy named 'Alouette.'
I was a sea captain.
I had a dinghy the crew called 'Woody.'
She sang when the wind stroked her ribs
and the spars rattled. Never mind.
Never mind the night breezes off Mosquito Island,
the roll of the berth as we lay
at anchor in North Sound
plotting our run to Anegada
so you could see Pomato Point
and what the chart called 'numerous coral heads.'
That morning, with Fallen Jerusalem
to port, you said four prayers, one each
to your gods and a last one to Sunday,
which you had neglected for years.
The swell in Drake's Channel is rising.
It will rise all through the night,
and if we are not too drunk on this fine black ***
we will rise with it.
Sep 15, 2016
Sep 15, 2016 at 6:56 AM UTC
En mi ansiedad por el naciente día
dorado girasol o flor desnuda,
está tu cara con la marca dura
que ayer vi que en tu frente te imprimía.
Rostro de alerta corzo entre la umbría,
que el dardo siente vivo en quemadura,
y el torvo vino del dolor apura,
con lenta bien habida altanería.
Un serafín armado anda en tu sombra
y ya tu fuerte capitán se nombra
en la voz sigilosa de su aliento.
Llama ya con un silbo a tus azores
y sale, cazador, de tus alcores,
pues hay voces de furias en el viento.
678
A tract can be coined a cake
and love of her biosphere but me
in Doeville shall rupture her mandrake
those herds of desert shores
with a torch will believe in me azores
when shy of antrorse
gypsies rebel there
as Jugendstil has accomplished Sezession
well eat lark in Catalonia
Oct 31, 2017
Oct 31, 2017 at 11:35 AM UTC
All round my hat I wear a lot of badges,
all round my hat, for many and many a day.
A disc of abalone shell from New Zealand;
a jester’s mask decorated with four glittering glass jewels (Venice,
though we weren’t there for the carnival) :
the Stars and Stripes, given to me in New York
in the weeks after 9/11, when you could hardly move
for huge examples of the national flag;
three lions, for England;
a bull, for Spain, even though I hate bull-fighting;
a liner (Alaska Cruise,2000, but we've done other cruises) :
and a gold-coloured jet plane, for all the journeys we have made;
a small badge of a very large statue, Christ the Redeemer (Rio) :
the seashell of St James, with his special cross on it
(Santiago de Compostela, though we didn’t walk the Camino) :
a very tiny badge of the ****** of Guadalupe in Mexico;
and a shiny gold-coloured outline of a dove
(Carcassonne cathedral) representing the Holy Spirit;
King Kong, my biggest badge, appropriately:
a smaller-scale hero, Winnie-the-Pooh, a gift from my daughter:
a koala decorated in crushed opal (Australia) :
a stripy cat on a tartan ribbon (Edinburgh) :
a dolphin from the Azores, though we didn’t see any there,
(but we have seen dolphins, so it counts twice) :
a miniature cookie-cutter in the shape of a moose (Canadian rockies)
– but it would make impossibly small cookies;
a toucan (Costa Rica) and a puffin (Iceland)
admiring each other’s beaks;
heroes of the Revolution: Chairman Mao, bought in Beijing:
the Hồ Chí Minh League of Youth badge (Vietnam) :
the star representing Yugoslavia,
though even when I bought it
Yugoslavia was no longer a country;
the face of Che Guevara, looking handsome and intense (Cuba) :
and not forgetting the daddy of them all,
Lenin, on a red and flaming star;
the Hand of Fatima (Tunisia) for luck;
and the Eye of Horus (Egypt) ,
because you can’t have too much luck.
And if anybody asks me the reason why I wear them,
they remind me of places – and people – that are far, far away.
Apr 19, 2018
Apr 19, 2018 at 4:03 AM UTC
I’m sorry my mind and soul
Changed the locks on my heart
You left me and my world
When I needed you most
And now you ask
‘Is everything ok?’
That answer is in a bottle
Somewhere out there
On the seas
All the requisites
All the ‘I Love Yous’
You said to me
They’re in that bottle
About to wash up
Near the Azores
Bring me the bottle
And we can talk
I need you
* I wish you were here*
I miss you
Can you hear me
Where did you go, my love
Mar 22, 2018
Mar 22, 2018 at 12:34 PM UTC
Truth, be told
On an old fashion gramophone, they played sweet
music in a small cove made for two, the young man
smiled this sleek woman was to become his bride.
A big seal came on to shore dragged the woman in
to the sea and under, when surfacing with the seal
she smiled and waved but didn't come ashore,
kept on jumping and playing and her leanness made
look like a seal and she was indeed turning into one.
Finally she and the bigger seal com to the shoreline
she told him her life was the ocean and she and her
the new man was swimming to the Azores where she
would meet his family. The young man took his
gramophone, sun cream, towels and walked home.
No one believed his accurate explanation, he got
life for drowning his girlfriend.
Feb 5, 2016
Feb 5, 2016 at 7:00 AM UTC
I'm the man of the island,
Eight floating pieces of land and Pico,
Which is the most beautiful island of all.
In Pico you can climb the mountain.
The tallest mountain in Portugal,
From the top you can see how much beauty Azores has.
And the beauty is all of us,
Without the others,
We wouldn't be called Azores,
Thats why we are Azoreans.
Feb 10, 2020
Feb 10, 2020 at 8:03 PM UTC