Friday, April 08, 2005
The Love Poems of Marichiko by Kenneth Rexroth
VII
Making love with you
Is like drinking sea water.
The more I drink
The thirstier I become,
Until nothing can slake my thirst
But to drink the entire sea.
XII
Come to me, as you come
Softly to the rose bed of coals
Of my fireplace
Glowing through the night-bound forest.
XXV
Your tongue thrums and moves
Into me, and I become
Hollow and blaze with
Whirling light, like the inside
Of a vast expanding pearl.
XXXVIII
I waited all night.
By midnight I was on fire.
In the dawn, hoping
To find a dream of you,
I laid my weary head
On my folded arms,
But the songs of the waking
Birds tormented me.
XLV
When in the Noh theater
We watched Shizuka Gozen
Trapped in the snow,
I enjoyed the tragedy,
For I thought,
Nothing like this
Will ever happen to me.
LV
The night is too long to the sleepless.
The road is too long to the footsore.
Life is too long to a woman
Made foolish by passion.
Why did I find a crooked guide
On the twisted paths of love?
LX
Chilled through, I wake up
With the first light. Outside my window
A red maple leaf floats silently down.
What am I to believe?
Indifference?
Malice?
I hate the sight of coming day
Since that morning when
Your insensitive gaze turned me to ice
Like the pale moon in the dawn.
Comments:
<< Home
Thank you for posting these these--I just found out about Rexroth and his Marichiko poems and am enthralled with them. It's very gracious of you tohave done this.
Frank Peterson in Seattle
Frank Peterson in Seattle
# posted by 
: 10:09 PM PDT
: 10:09 PM PDT
Hi Frank
My pleasure, and thank you for seeing it so I can come back and remember how beautiful it is...
All Good Things,
-Alice
My pleasure, and thank you for seeing it so I can come back and remember how beautiful it is...
All Good Things,
-Alice
I've written a lot about Rexroth, and it means a lot that you find the Marichiko poems beautiful as you do and as they are.
Rexroth also wrote this:
As long as we are lost
In the world of purpose
We are not free. I sit
In my ten foot square hut.
The birds sing. The bees hum.
the leaves sway. The water
Murmurs over the rocks.
The canyon shuts me in.
If I moved, Basho's frog
Would splash in the pool.
All Summer long the gold
Laurel leaves fell through space.
Today I was aware
Of a maple leaf floating
On the pool. In the night
I stare into the fire.
Once I saw fire cities,
Town, palaces, wars,
Heroic adventures,
In the campfires of youth.
Now I see only fire.
My breath moves quietly.
The stars move overhead.
In the clear darkness
Only a small red glow
Is left in the ashes.
On the table lies a cast
Snakeskin and an uncut stone.
And this:
My king snake lies in inert
Curves over books and papers.
Even his tongue is still, but
His yellow eyes are judicial.
The mice move delicately
In the walls. beyond the hills
The moon is up, and the sky
Turns to crystal before it.
The canyon blurs in half light.
An invisible palace
Of glass, full of transparent
People, settles around me.
Over the dim waterfall
The intense promise of light
Grows above the canyon's cleft.
A nude girl enters my hut,
With white feet, and swaying hips,
And fragrant sex.
And who are you?
And what do you write?
Geoffrey Gardner
Marlborough, NH
Rexroth also wrote this:
As long as we are lost
In the world of purpose
We are not free. I sit
In my ten foot square hut.
The birds sing. The bees hum.
the leaves sway. The water
Murmurs over the rocks.
The canyon shuts me in.
If I moved, Basho's frog
Would splash in the pool.
All Summer long the gold
Laurel leaves fell through space.
Today I was aware
Of a maple leaf floating
On the pool. In the night
I stare into the fire.
Once I saw fire cities,
Town, palaces, wars,
Heroic adventures,
In the campfires of youth.
Now I see only fire.
My breath moves quietly.
The stars move overhead.
In the clear darkness
Only a small red glow
Is left in the ashes.
On the table lies a cast
Snakeskin and an uncut stone.
And this:
My king snake lies in inert
Curves over books and papers.
Even his tongue is still, but
His yellow eyes are judicial.
The mice move delicately
In the walls. beyond the hills
The moon is up, and the sky
Turns to crystal before it.
The canyon blurs in half light.
An invisible palace
Of glass, full of transparent
People, settles around me.
Over the dim waterfall
The intense promise of light
Grows above the canyon's cleft.
A nude girl enters my hut,
With white feet, and swaying hips,
And fragrant sex.
And who are you?
And what do you write?
Geoffrey Gardner
Marlborough, NH
Hi Geoffrey.
Wow
-My king snake lies in inert
Curves over books and papers.
Even his tongue is still, but
His yellow eyes are judicial.
The mice move delicately
In the walls. beyond the hills
The moon is up, and the sky
Turns to crystal before it.
The canyon blurs in half light.
An invisible palace
Of glass, full of transparent
People, settles around me.
Over the dim waterfall
The intense promise of light
Grows above the canyon's cleft.
A nude girl enters my hut,
With white feet, and swaying hips,
And fragrant sex.-
Reminds me of my life in some ways...
I do not write..I copy and paste what I resonate with at the moment...
Best to you,
-Alice
Post a Comment
Wow
-My king snake lies in inert
Curves over books and papers.
Even his tongue is still, but
His yellow eyes are judicial.
The mice move delicately
In the walls. beyond the hills
The moon is up, and the sky
Turns to crystal before it.
The canyon blurs in half light.
An invisible palace
Of glass, full of transparent
People, settles around me.
Over the dim waterfall
The intense promise of light
Grows above the canyon's cleft.
A nude girl enters my hut,
With white feet, and swaying hips,
And fragrant sex.-
Reminds me of my life in some ways...
I do not write..I copy and paste what I resonate with at the moment...
Best to you,
-Alice
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
