some things to show you

Cento from Nazim Hikmet: 6/28/08


Life passed like the wind-winged horsemen.
My body which is a pine tree
across from my window
........resembles a world war soldier.

No wrist with a whip to crack
........lives like dark waters.

-on my shaven cheek my stubble turning grey-

Tomorrow I'll play it brilliantly,
acknowledge only this earth.
There can't even be a grave for giant loves.

Friends, don't look at my eyes.
Three cypresses stood in front of my doorway.
All I own is a pot of honey.

................It has no color.

**

Cento from Nazim Hikmet: 6/29/08


One night there were stars alone in the sea
without walls or borders,
............not concerned with the next world.
Then earth's pulse begins.
The earth never ending;
............this land is ours

I am full of your words.
Our fate mirrors the world's.

It's still dangerous to wander the open seas at night.
The media tell lies again:
I've become insufferable again.
A clock strikes somewhere in the night.

This world, this pirate ship, will sink.

**

Cento from Shafer Hall: 6/29/08


With no nickels for dancing
his grill could attract catfish
by throwing a brick through
the sun from the late afternoon.
His lungs are well supplied with blood.
In the family home,
he removed his skin
with himself in the mirror.
And, at the end of the hitch
it will occasionally slip.
A five-year-old girl's
knot. Knowingly
telling us of the beauty that will be
both hot & cold at the same time.