Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Poetry as a function of economics

I write poems (in itself a statement which may ultimately not reflect reality) partly because, as a harried householder who is able to identify very much with Virginia Woolf's "a room of her own" thesis (although I am male), I cannot afford the time and space to experiment creating in other formats and other media...admittedly in my puppy years (other people's twenties and thirties) I did experiment with chasing my tail, but did not produce much that did not seem laboured and derivative - but now I might be more playful and able to flow internally more - so who knows what I could create given the space. But for now 'man must wek' and so my creativity (is it "mine"? Or is it on loan??) must express itself in teaching for the most part, with the little forays into poetry that weekends or late nights will allow me here and there....

im eyn kemach eyn mayim, veim eyn mayim eyn kemach
im eyn mavet eyn chayim, veim eyn chayim ayn mavet
im ayn zayin ayn nartik, veim eyn shadayim ayn chalav

lishtof et haaretz zavat
im ayn perach eyn dvora, im ayn dvora ayn oketz
im eyn avar eyn atid, ve yesh rak et haachshav
im eyn milim eyn chafetz, im eyn chafetz ayn tshuka
im ayn olam ayn al ma leheyatzev

ahuvati

if there is no flour there is no water, no water - no flour
no death, no life, and if no life, no death
if there is no penis-sword, no vagina-sheath,
no breasts, no milk
to flood the flowing land
no flower to bee, no bee to sting
no past no future,
then only the now
no words, no objects, no objects, no desire
and if there is no world
then no reason to be sad
beloved
____________________________

Reminder to self: A precondition for creativity is knowing that even if you don't write a single word, you and the world are already whole and complete. Now you are free to add to that fathomless completion.

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