they are different
    just look at them
their skin color  their clothing  their speech
their customs   the way they move their bodies

we like them as tourists
they leave money in our country
and then go home again

if they buy the house next to us
THAT’s different

it takes a conscious effort
to see them not as aliens
    but as our neighbors

lest we become aware
that all of us are aliens
in most countries of our globe

you work hard
   to do things right
and get kicked in the teeth
   ever so often
by people who cannot see
   beyond their pug-nosed selves

yet you continue
secretly hoping that
   somehow  sometime
someone will recognize
   your efforts

one day
   after yet another kick in the teeth
you decide you have had it

you do not stop trying

you just know
that you do

   not

   really

   need

their recognition

         * *

dead bodies floating
in our oceans
from the Asian Pacific
to the Mediterranean

crumpled corpses lying
on our beaches
thousands drowned unknown

overcrowded detention centers
not unlike concentration camps
behind barbed wires
guarded by police and snarling dogs

nobody feels responsible

not  those who started wars
destroyed whole cities
made millions homeless
and into refugees

not those who take advantage
of the chaos for their own gain
abusing the names of their gods
or some ancient figurehead
to excuse their atrocities and greed

not those who live
in comfortable homes
and wish the desperate crowds
would just stay on the TV screen
and not come close

nor those who pretend
to be the guardians
of our great humanitarian heritage
but show no backbone
against nationalist fanatics

it is the shame of the world
to sit and talk and watch
and not do enough

those who turn away
the needy and homeless
could also
      quite suddenly
lose their homes

forced to rely
on the kindness of strangers

is simply abysmal

no speech needed

you walk into my mind
   like irresistibly you walked
   into my life
also at unexpected moments

I catch a glimpse of beauty
   and feel you touch my cheek

looking at the screen
   I see your face
   return to me
   a loving smile

you sit beside me
   in your longish yellow dress
   when I am in my car

and when I fall asleep
   or wake up drowsily
   your presence
   hardens my desire
   and makes me catch my breath

the thought of you!

if you don’t like the way things are
either change them
or change your attitude

about 250 years ago
young Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s tale of Werther’s
passionate unfulfilled love and ensuing suicide
triggered a wave of suicides across all Europe

the author was more than embarrassed  
it is reported he was actually quite shocked
by this effect of his romantic writ

from then on he avoided the portrayal
of hypersensitive romantic youths
    with their emotional entanglements
    and often fatal ends
and preferred dramas of the simpler sort

     like the eternal fight of good and evil
     the striving for almightiness and universal knowledge
     dilemmas of obedience and command
     et cetera

today, like then, young people
go through the stifling pains of unrequited love
and feel they hover at the brink of the abyss
    ready to jump

then, as today, young Werther’s suicide
is nothing but a waste of youthful life
that could have brought him many happy moments
had he allowed himself to stay alive

listening to the not so enticing news
that basically tells us that authoritarian idiots
are on the rise  
     globally

that neither the US nor Europe
are able to handle refugee flows
the proper legal and humanitarian way

that global warming is actually happening
and not just an invention of the Chinese etc.
    in order to misle U.S. American billionaires

that in the future
thanks to advances in technology
only experts in very sophisticated laboratories
will be able to  recognize the difference
between fake news and real news

I DO worry about the world
my grandchildren grow up into

write a thank-you note
to that woman
in her simple blue dress

talk to your daughter
about important things
of life (= herself )

tell your parents
that you actually love them

have a long chatty walk
with your son

speak out loud
how lovely your partner
looks every morning

start jogging 5 km at least
every other day

give flowers to the secretary
for all those little things
she just keeps doing for you

have a long and patient talk
with your grandparents

love yourself
just a little more

and take better care
of yourself
before ...

thinking in quiet
at the end of a busy day
about what you have actually done
can yield sobering results

when your children
get killed by a lunatic
with a semiautomatic
in their school

and your president
flies in to meet the bereaved families
but in his fake condolence speech
does not mention even once
the words „gun control“

then it becomes very clear
whom you should vote for
in the next elections

why is it
that this day weighs heavy on my mind
though nothing special has occurred
except the usual bad news
     of deaths and fighting and catastrophies
     greed and abominable politics

my private life is safe and fine
remote from all the global strife
it runs a fairly pleasant course
with just occasional disturbances

could that weigh heavily on my mind?

treading carefully
uncertain of whether
   the unfamiliar ground would bear
   its new burden
the first steps
soon turned
into a dance & tumble
   of happiness & love
   & letting go
celebrating the wonder
   of a newfound world

further explorations
brought some tough encounters
   with the Other
after a while     though
it could not be denied
that this was more
than just a fantasy
   or momentary wish fulfilment

it was real

ever since
the joy of coming home
has mingled with
   the awe of new discoveries
and the pure happiness
of feeling
this new world
expand into the future
of our lives

* *

images of the savior’s birth abound
in Christian lands

many rooms in many museums
have been filled with paintings of the scene
over many centuries

he
and his ****** mother
and his consenting father
in a manger
shepherds and sweet animals around

33 years later

what does it mean
    that he shouldered the guilt of mankind
    and died for us on the cross

what guilt

why did he have to die

born innocent by a ******
    visited by the holy spirit

the archetypal story
    of human suffering
begins with his birth

and has not ended since

some days there are
that make you feel time’s standing still

no matter what you do
it somehow in the end is inconclusive
leaves you bereft of any sense
    of celebrating an achievement

you find yourself in eerie limbo
    work without progress for infinity
a prospect rather dreary for your soul
tempting you sorely to do nothing
     succumb to a  paralysis
caused by external unknown forces

    demons, aliens, devils, hostile spirits
    dysfunctional governments or gods
    & cetera

on which you happily can blame
your inactivity

but be aware

life does not care why you do nothing
it simply steamrolls you
     if you are in the way

you better keep on swimming

I wake up
my arm
finds you not

only a pillow

you are not here

anymore

sitting on the loggia
watching the rain come closer
with thunder and lightening
counting the seconds
     between the flash and the rumbling
enjoying the spectacle
     of brilliant spidery fingers
     illuminating the evening sky
each a different shape
     followed by its own soundblast
the noise of the rain
     growing louder and harsher
     with heaviness
bending the branches of trees
     roses and lilies to the ground

simply fascinating

some people make you seriously wonder
    about
what makes them tick so brazenly
    against
all values they supposedly hold high

     is it a tunnel vision
     of greedy individuality?

    a dangerous mix
    of arrogance, innocence, ignorance?

    or are they simply overwhelmed
    with unexpectedly gained power
    mistake the votes of people
    for a mandate to play god?

unknown may be the causes
but the results are clear

if you preach water but drink wine
throw precious pearls before swine
say things today that you deny tomorrow

folks may still listen to your words
but do no longer follow the meaning
of perma-hype that makes no sense

sooner or later
they‘ll simply stop listening

listening to Benny Goodman’s smooth version of  ”Tiger Rag”
composed at a time when tigers where not yet an endangered species
     when soldiers were dying in World War I
     and would die again soon after Benny first recorded it in the 1930s
    
I wonder how it is that music can be so divorced from death

maybe because, for the US, wars have always been fought elsewhere,
    except for the Civil War - an issue that still occupies two research institutes

distance seems to create heroes more easily
     even though they are not aware of it
music helps to maintain the division between here and there

only when the draped coffins are unloaded
     those two worlds converge
and our sense of uninvolvement is exploded

time is
the space in which we grow
   without awareness
   in our early years
structured by meals
   arrivals and departures
   light and dark
   hot and cold
   school   studies  play  adventures
   celebrations
and by waiting
   anxiously or not
for things to happen

time is
that feeling
that we may not have enough of it
in our later years
busy with jobs and family and travel
covering long distances in order to
achieve and educate and care

time is
what starts to rush by us
with increasing speed
in our final years
making us wonder
what it really means

that space
by which we measure
our lives
   our universes
      our worlds

time is

listening to contemporary soundscapes on the radio
I realize I am the  age of my grandmother
when she was terrified that I was
happily howling the latest Beatles  songs
and trying to play them on the piano which
    for her
was a sanctuary of late 19th century music
she liked to play with virtuosity and passion

much of what my culture radio station
calls contemporary music
or pop music stations praise in their charts
does not really catch my ear either

times keep changing

we do not really know
what to expect of times to come

those who dare say they do
are more or less intelligently speculating
and their assumptions usually don‘t exceed
foggy predictions read from crystal *****

so what?
the problem is not really new
all our ancestors
     some more desperate than others
were longing for the certainty
they thought would go with knowledge
of all things as yet to come

     fact is we have survived without it
     for some million years

even if our digitized society
     obsessed with quantifying everything
     from time to work to *** to pleasure
seems mortally in fear of lack of data
     about the future

the one thing we can say for sure
is that life will be different
because the only constant in our world
is change

     know it
     and get on

these days
looking around the globe
one might believe that we are travelling in time

just in the wrong direction

regression as progress
seems to be
the dominant notion of the day
creating wannabees in various disguises
     populist czars, sultans, nationalists, dictators,
     assorted self-appointed snake-oil salesmen
     and saviors of their peoples’ wealth and health,
trumpeting fences, walls, tough immigration laws,
etc., etc.  
to keep out all those aliens

     who otherwise are welcome
     as our partners in the global trade
     that seems to dominate the world of greed

so we can all be ourselves

     whatever that might mean

claiming to solve the problems of tomorrow
     with romanticized memories of yesterday
is hopeless and quite dangerous

do you remember
what that glorified past
actually was?

these days
looking around the globe
one might believe that we are traveling in time

just in the wrong direction

regression as progress
seems to be
the dominant notion of the day
creating wannabes in various disguises
     populist czars, sultans, nationalists, dictators,
     assorted self-appointed saviors
     of their peoples’ wealth and health,
trumpeting fences, walls, tough immigration laws,
etc., etc.  
to keep out and silence all those aliens
     or invade their countries
      and eliminate them

     who otherwise are welcome
     as our partners in the global trade
     that seems to dominate the world of greed

so we can all be ourselves

     whatever that might mean

claiming to solve the problems of tomorrow
     with memories of yesterday
is not only hopeless but quite dangerous

do you remember
what that glorified past
actually was?

I am really getting tired
about all the NGO calls
for donations & support
after natural catastrophes
etc.

why
are the local/regional/national authorities
who administer taxpayer money
unable to handle the situation?!?!

the yellow viral elephant
is not the topic of these lines

I’d rather speak of precious things
we almost have forgotten
over the last few months

the sight of crystal mountain lakes
under blue summer skies

your lover’s eyes looking at you
mirroring shared desires

how refugees were lucky to escape
and build a new home elsewhere

how children with unbridled joy
learn how to use their favorite toy

the oceans undulating waves
always new shapes for our wondering eyes

how the new day reverberates
with the melodious song of birds

our world has beauty bountiful
just look at it

People that 'are'  
of those who still 'become'
speak lowly
treasuring the edge
they have
by luck or by some clever sleight of hand
gained in the race for 'being'

Sometimes I wonder
where I am
  am I  
or am I not
do I become  
  and if so
will I ever be
what others are
where others are
(or think themeselves to be)

Maybe
those who appear so sure
   of what and where they are
have at their backs
the everlasting fear
that when they are
   where they have liked to be
there always are
the others who were there
   some time before
and now
are somewhere else
happy again
that they are
where and what
others still struggle to become

Methinks
to be where I am
suits me fine
I do not care exactly
where
this is
if only I still see
a chance that I become
that is  
            I change
and not just be

There is
it seems to me
too little space
between to be
and
not to be.

      * *

the day you left us
was the first day of spring
supposed to
   initiate new life
   signify cyclical energy
   blossoming flowers
   the greening of trees

you
   or your body
decided against it

I do not blame you
for this

I just wish
you had stayed on
a little longer

to answer
   all the questions
   I never took the time
  to ask

to tell my father
   that he is OK
   with all his idiosyncracies

to be assured
   that you have been
   a wonderful mother
   and wife
   even if we not always
   found the words
   to say so

to know
   that your husband
   and your sons
   loved you
   as much as you loved them

I wish

too many years
of mutual grief suppressed
had left
   it seems
only a craving for 'revenge'
and for material security
    in her

and while he would have gladly
left her everything
he needed some things
for himself

and so they fought

when you are pensive
looking for ideas
to write convincing verse

just think of all those idiots
in politics in our days

your pen will glow
a scathing red

with what you have to say

is not the question

when we have thoughts
we think we should put down
make known to the wide world

we often hesitate
ponder if it is worth the while

afraid of being shunned
called names
et cetera
by people who believe they know
how proper writing should be done

welllllllll ….

I believe if one makes all the effort
to tell us how s/he feels and thinks
all we should do is

LISTEN!

a strong bora
sends the boats in the port
rocking and clanging

people keep clutching
their hats
tightly to their heads
their skirts to their thighs

we take windblown photographs
of each other
before the harbor bay

the wind is not as wild
as on the funny drawings
on those picture postcards
that show everything flying
   through the air

but things are bad enough
to bring tears to your eyes
and to make us turn our backs
on the rest
   of Trieste
and dry our eyes
over coffee and coke
in a small bar
   around the corner

           * *

the time we spend
on sorting trivialities
one should not always
see as wasted

it can be a reprieve
     or an escape
from life‘s important questions
that tend to overwhelm us
now and then

solving our little problems
helps us establish
the much-needed illusion of order
in our life
encouraging us
to tackle bigger questions

apparently
we live in times
in which disasters chase each other
around the globe in never-ending sequence

    or is it just the real-time news media hype
    that gives us this impression?

yet even if I generously discard
the ****** massacres and crises
far away

there are enough rough dreadful things
that even if they don’t affect me ******
do touch my heart and make me grieve
with the afflicted

methinks we’re coming near the point
when the majority of normal people on our globe
will rise an tell fanatics of all creeds
to shove it  
     take a shower  
          just go home
and let us live our lives in peace !

to hold
the other's happiness
higher than your own

to lie in each other's arms
trembling with joy

always tell the whole truth
even though it may hurt

try to really listen
to each other's words

stand by each other
in times of sorrow

love the children
like your own

love each other as
you love yourselves

say it
when you need time for yourself
before the world falls apart

escape from the quotidian
with a sudden caress

on doors closed for a while
   rap gently

tell tenderly
each other's fears
and smoothen the frowning brow
with kisses

think of the little things
at breakfast

understand contradiction
as the sign of life

   only the dead
   contradict nobody

   not even themselves

the current occupier of the white house
is unable to lead the battle against the pandemic
sends unmarked secret police
    to push peaceful protesters into unmarked vans
lets police use tear gas and rubber bullets
    to clear a place for a photo-op before a church
    into which he has never set foot
    holding up a bible which he most likely never read
spreads birther lies about possible opponents

tries to defund the US postal service
    because he is afraid of mail-in votes
attempts to destroy anti-pollution laws
    that improve people’s health
wants to abolish Medicaid
tries to celebrate a wishy-washy peace agreement
    between UAE and Israel as his success
    throwing the Palestinians under the bus

    & cetera   & cetera   & cetera

all he has managed to do in three-and-a-half years
is destroy many achievements of his predecessors
destabilize world diplomatic alliances
insult longtime allies and cuddle up to authoritarian leaders
killing 170,000 {updated 300.000] Americans due to his lack of leadership
sending tens of millions into unemployment and joblessness
and blame everybody else in the world for his blatant incompetence

today the USA have lost all credit
among the global community
and left a vacuum
    China and Russia are racing to fill

make America great again?
the best cynical joke of the past 120 years

the self-styled trumpeteers of ethnic hate
wish to build fences
    close the gates
to keep out those who flee
from self-styled trumpeteers of religious hate
who, as it is,
claim to feel called to hold up
ancient teachings that are out of date
in modern democratic times
when neither chimes of church bells
nor the cries of muezzins
or any other servants of religion
rank higher than the people’s democratic vote

as we are told by the elected
trumpeteers of democratic nations

god and the state each get their share
in separate spheres
but do not mix

for me
those who dare violate this rule
just come across as desperate to solve
new problems with old words
look backward and believe
that when they sell regression
     garnished with some bows
it will be seen as progress
make people overlook that
     while they now may live by simple truths
they can no longer disagree
     without the fear of ****** harm

just let us speak out loud and clear
     against the self-styled trumpeteers' song

to **** in the name of whatever god
is always wrong

space&time;
   narrow
to the moment
   it
may happen

nothing
proceeds
beyond that point

the whole universe
   folds
   into one compact dot

a cosmic black hole
   whose invisible energy
   holds promise
   to burst forth
   in brilliant stars of

salvation
   elation
      liberation
equality
     freedom
happiness
     & cetera

another big bang

this time

   maybe

also with a whimper

      * *

if you are seriously listening
to genuine folk songs of the world

     not to the muzak that pervades all malls

after a while you find yourself
     floating into these worlds  of ancient tunes
     imagining an ambience  of ages past
whose melodies have kept their power over centuries
and still keep tickling legs and bodies
     in our days
     of young and old

these melodies of our ancestors
simply remind us that they,
     too,
did know a thing or two

about the joy
     of living

I listen to the words of tv hosts
trying – or maybe just pretending – to analyze
topical issues of the day in depth
on their panels with certified experts on the issue

yet in the end mostly remains a host of possibilities
rarely a clear decision
more seldom even a provocative conclusion
one could at least start arguing about

what happened to well-structured arguments
that did not lend themselves to fuzzy readings
but had a recognizable opinion at their core
challenging viewers to discuss some more?

the tweets of Donald J. Trump
are often incredibly dumb
he shoots out some message
which while still on its passage
corresponds to its sender's small thumb

we need in life:
love from a few
respect from all

two things
we can give our children:
roots and wings

why is my love so far from me
   why can she not be here
why do I live in a separate world
  and she in another sphere

why can we not walk hand in hand
  and frolick when we please
why do have to wait in pain
  for time to bring release

why did we fall in such fierce love
  that ties our hearts so tight
why did we not resist the pull
  of that immemorable night
  which filled our lives
        with sudden bliss
  and made the world stand still

why do we ravenously miss
  each other's eyes,
             our smiles, the kiss
  that seals our love
             and shrinks all space
  and joins us close
  as long as we just
                will

love came to me
in quiet
   gently
and found me
unaware of

how
   over the table
   of a conference lunch
I must have taken
to your ways

how
   sitting next to you
   in drowsy silence
   on the bus that took us
   to some wind-blown ruins
   of antiquity
your presence was
like that of a close friend
with whom I shared
a silence comfortably safe
knowing
no words were needed

only when
   on that merry evening
you looked
and moved
like happiness incarnate
and put your hand
spontaneously?
upon my knee
I recognized

how
   much
I wanted
   you

      * *

how do I know
if words that clog my throat
and finally spew out
are worthy to be read?

how do I know
whether my thoughts
arrive as I have meant them

survive the transition
from notions
  into words?

my eyes
  see yours
when they awake
to face the world

your lips
return my smile
in dreamy moments

your face
looks into mine
from my reflections
in the polished glass

my voice responds
to yours
in endless dialogue
through time and space

your body's loving warmth
has taken home
deep down within

I have got you
under my skin

my eyes
  see yours
when they awake
to face the world

your lips
return my smile
in dreamy moments

your face
looks into mine
from my reflections
in the polished glass

my voice responds
   to yours
in endless dialogue
through time and space

your body's loving warmth
has taken home
deep down within

I have got you
under my skin

* *

the power of disappointment
is always remarkable

how dark
a sunny day
how ordinary
the loveliest loving woman
how destitute
a happy life

in those moments
when we cannot forgive
ourselves

when we think idle thoughts and ****** with our mind
we might as well just blandly look into the sky
and absent-mindedly pursue the flights of distant birds
against the matrix of blue firmaments
which seem less infinite than our imaginary universe

trying to look beyond that globe of blue
we venture into depths that really make us think
about the cosmos out in space
infinite stars and planets of unknown identity

we soon become aware
that our idle thoughts are dwarfed
by the immenseness of the space
through which not quite discovered forces
propel our planet with incredible speed
to destinies we do not know

perhaps in order to avoid acknowledgement
of this precarious reality
we fill our lives with more comforting things
fashions  wars  power games  religion  money  
internet chats  with other avatars  et cetera

anything to distract us from the contemplation
of insights into how to live
   in such a transient indeterminacy
with a determined sense of goal and meaning

think about it