‘You’re making me into something I’m not.’
Then she had to stoop
to pick something up; I saw
a few vertebrae,
then quickly touched
her spine.
She shivered; turned,
stood up straight;
greets me with a laugh
and is gone.
*
Having been lying on one’s left side;
having to lie on my right side.
The unforgettable face:
remembered with ever
greater effort, seen
again. In it, the eyes;
the cheekbones,
the nose; her mouth
which I never knew.
*
That you never existed.
I suddenly let myself slip;
and I hide my face.
The winter is long dead.
The swifts are back.
Have I always loved you;
or has she never existed.
Memories
are not memories.
Memory is perception.
*
Where she now is, now
I do not know. Just as she
happens to think of me, I
might happen not to think of
her. So, precisely where there is
nothing, there is always
something. By denying
motion I cannot even
manage it here,
manage it now.
*
As soon as it looks at itself
it is never anything else.
It is indivisible,
innumerable.
Come and stand on my shoes again:
then I can see your face.
It is broad daylight;
it has rained;
your eyes are glistening for something;
an ant is searching for something.
*
It’s clearer now in my head;
I think I am in my head;
I can see the other islands
again. The sea appears
to have calmed down as well.
And so I repeat myself:
controlled despair about nothing.
The myrtle has started to blossom again.
With a fresh laurel branch
I manage to beat off
most of the flies.
*
She stoops
to pick something up:
because she had dropped something.
To see her stoop like that
I got her to drop something.
Before she leaves the room
and closes me behind her,
I get her to do it one more time.
And that’s enough: no more.
At last: off you go.
Farewell.
(Hans Faverey)
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Based on Topics: Time Poems, Faces Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Memory Poems, Winter Poems, Laughter Poems, Leading & Managing Poems, Efforts PoemsBased on Keywords: unforgettable, vertebrae, swifts, cheekbones