34/64/94

 

AND BOOK OF POEMS

FOR MY 60TH BIRTHDAY

1994

1. Upon The Closing of My Twenty Third

What calls beyond?

an echo

'tis no echo but the vibrating present

in which I am obliterating

in anxiety and frustration

to lead those that disbelieve

not in wonderment

but I

in quest, in search in interrogation

a query perhaps

but it is I the query to myself

not myself to the query to others

the simple question

cannot be answered quickly.....

no that is obvious

but rather I meditate, then assume an answer

only to be incongruous

why won't people believe in simplicity?

what calls beyond

an echo

'tis no echo but the vibrating now

this now presents my problem

the acknowledgment

I don't wish to acknowledge

the thought I don't wish to think,

the hurt,

the security,

the torment with pleasure

but is this but what I wish to experience

then why must I create a measure for measure?

what calls beyond?

an echo

no echo I assure you but the vibrating. penetrating

his now?

29 April 1957

2. Upon the opening of my twenty-fourth

Black is Day

White is Night

Black is not Night

White is not Day

White is day

Black is Night

Black is Day

White is night

You See there are many kinds of night

And there are many kinds of Day

So how could black or white be right

What color is twilight?

29/4/58

3. Upon the Opening of My Twenty-Sixth

I am alive on my twenty-sixth

There is an infinity

At present

And my now has become infinite

The transition has placed itself

In front of me

I am not alone

I have life...and love

It is rare

This thing we share

This omnibus

This omnipresent

This omnipotence

This is my omnilife

And my omnilove

of

This omnipresent now!

4 Upon The Closing Of My Twenty Seventh

The year to come

Cannot be divided

An to the year which

Have been

The summation of

All those emotions

Expelled and emoted

Create the complexity

The prognosis of the Next is not a summation

But a supposition

And to live in Pre-

Supposition is to live

In a fantasy that

Realizes a myth not

The fantasy of existence

And being

Youth goes by

While

We don't live

During but

For the time

To come

5.Upon The Closing Of My Twenty Eight

Life has but one request

It starts slow

until

We realize we are

Speeding by the

Time behind us

Life has but one request

Even though we

Concern ourselves

With the future

And avoid the

Present

Life has but one request

6.Upon The Closing Of My Thirty Fourth

Today I look within

myself

Not upon myself

I was there and now

I am here

I have had what I have

Thought was and now it

is

What was could be

I know who I am

But he or she does not

know me

Shall I only observe

Shall I always be enclosed

WENDEPUNKT April 29th 1968

Today I will proceed

To open not only

my eyes

my heart

Me shall open

I offer thee me

To be turned back

To be mistrusted

To be misunderstood

To be betrayed

I offer thee me

For I am ready for experience

AGAIN!

 

7 . Upon The Closing Of My Thirty Sixth

I have crossed many

Bridge sin the past

And I will cross many

Bridges in time to come

In the capitals of the world

Across waterways

And across highways

Railways and earth ways

The communication by

A bridge was there

There are other bridges

That we can and cannot

Cross and these are

Life experiences and

These are the most difficult

and sometimes the

Most delicate

The failure of time

The failure of space

The failure of mind

These failures prohibit

Us inhibit us yet

Protect us

They work together

And in combination

Is it any wonder

The terms of bridges

Relate to our emotions

The suspension

The catenary

The Draw

The foot

The Arch

The pontoon

The cantilever,the truss,the swing

The vertical lift and,of course

The rolling lift Bridge

29/4/1970

8. Upon the opening of my Thirty Seventh

I am as old

As a Mountain

And never the less not

I am as old as lake

And never the less not

I am as old as the trees

And nevr the less not

I am as old

And never the less not

Then i am not as old

And never the less

Then I am not

And never the less

I am........................29/4/72

9. UPON THE OPENING OF MY THIRTY NINTH

PROPE NATURAM

Away upon a hill of tall grass

On the twenty ninth of April

Nineteen Sevennty Three

I have reached a nearness

Of nature

I have reached

A contact with myself

I have brought myself

To nature

A nd nature of myself

Is acheived

The road always lead

In the other direction

From its onset

Only to be confronted

With its embryonic

Initial beginning

The spring of nature

The summer of life

The fall of knowledge

All three bring a

Nearness of the long winter

I have prepared myself

For this winter

But my autumn and summer

Are ever near

My seasons are perrenial

My deeds seek the infinate

I am near in nature

I am near to nature

I am near to

I am near

I am

I

29/4/73

10. UPON THE OPENING OF MY FORTIETH

To have what I thought I would want

Is another reality

Tp want what i thought i could have

Is another reality

What other than that

Which one could or would

To have or have not

Is but human

To see what I thought I could see

Is another reality

Tohear what i thought I could hear

Is another reality

Oh my senses play

In another reality

As my emotions play

In another reality

To have lived what I thought I would live

Is another reality

To live what i thought I could live

Is another reality

At the threshhold of my fortieth

I have witnessed

A paradigmatic* experience

29/4/74 ap

*(Paradigmatic experience­ Karl Mannheim,sociologist 1893­1947; basic experiences which carry more weight than others and which are unforgettable in comparison with others that are merely passing sensations)

11.UPON THE CLOSING OF MY FORTIETH

To close but another decade

Of my life

An important one

A consequential one

A rightful one

Perhaps the most

Outstanding one

It is time to recount

Not in numbers

But in deeds

Deeds I have accomplished

Deeds I have encountered

Deeds I have left behind

Deeds I have aquired

And above all the

Deeds that will remain

Four decades or two score

Is the count of my life

Yet I couldn't possibly

Accomplish all that I

Have in mind

Within another two score

Or more

What is there in this

Life that we retain

There is really very little

As nothing is forever

As in life

But there are things

We retain though they

Do not remain

And these things are

Real and remain

Alive with us

29/4/74

12.UPON THE CLOSING OF MY FORTY FIRST

The wake of a love

Is but the stream

Of impetuous thoughts

That follow in turbulence

Creating a pattern of

Vibrations and flows

Of happiness mixed

With sorrow mingling

Merging as one initial

Idea and to be slowly

Integrated into the subtle

Waves and current of

The waters that were

29/4/75

13 UPON THE OPENING OF MY FORTY THIRD

The picture as a child

Do you remember

The painting on the wall

Above the trunk astrew with

A tapestry woven shawl

Depicting Daniel

In the lion's den

Above was a fall view

Of the forrest

A forrest you have nevr seen

Never been

Never walked through

Its thick trunks

Its narrow trunks

Silouetted against

The amber gold meadow

Tanned oranged parched

Surfaced leaves

Why was it chosen

Why was it there

What will it mean

How often have I sinced

walked throughthis scene?

28/4/77

14.On The Closing of My Forty Fourth

To walk in the wake of one's life

is to follow one's footsteps

and imprints while making them

it is an exercise of looking

forward with a rear view mirror

you are at a point in life

all is there, yet nothing here

it is the most comprehensible incoherence

establishing one's self in a

contradiction of egotism and cynicism

the bitterness with today's

responses verses the nostalgic

sugared coated yesterday in

co­production with an undetermined future

all is possible but our literary

intellectual debut seeks the impossible

time is gone, come and will

go into the same loneliness

with which we have been born

we have created our museums of living things

assembled and collected

from other's lives and paraphernalia

we have taken them backward

forwards but not the slightest

chance to bring them afterwards

what lays beyond has preempted

behind and the selections ahead

are incompatible to our nature now

two choices are the approach

change directions immediately

or compromise your mind

your soul,your body

the second of which you will be

recognizable and the first will

lead to incognito and only self

knowledge and real comprehension

of life.

30/4/78

15. Upon The Closing Of My Forty Sixth

On route to know where

Returning from some where

No where is to know where

We are going or coming

From somewhere

Was an addition

Of circumstances

And Coincidences

To give us

Sum­where

Some where alone

I realize this

Being alone

In aloneness

Without loneliness

Is a sum­where

In a know­where

29/4/81

16. Upon the closing of my forty eighth

Reflects

The death in a love

is the death of a love

it begins with accusations

to preform the rite of guilt

it turns the neutral

to defiance

with pride as offence

it wields disaster

and termination

a nihlation of itself

a destruction of self

to offend the partner

to part the offenders

the emotion is distraught

the will channelled

with only the need

to destroy

catastrophe arrives

paralysis exists

the death of love

the love of death

the death in love

29/4/82

17. Upon the opening of my Forty ninth

why not me

I not me : me not I

why not me : me not why

who are you : you are who

someone to you : you to someone

who I know : know I who

when we were : were we when

oh it's you : you its oh

no not me :me not no

no you know : know you no

I know me : me know I

me not why : why not me

28 4 83

Ode To Lisette

She was a friend to all

yet had few close by

She was a teacher to many

and a student to none

She was a woman to one

and all were her children

She was a council to neophytes

and a critic to professionals

She sought no praise

and saved laudatios for others

Her life was a fight

yet remained a perfectionist

She was 100% teacher

and 100% photographer

She was particular and meticulous

in task and deed

She raised criteria to

unreachable peaks

She would suggest nothing

she herself would not do

She was and will remain

all that she wanted from life

For herself and those she touched

I know I have lost my closest friend

in photography

Her departure from life

will fail me considerably

30/3/83

18. Upon the Opening of My Fiftieth

The ripened heart searches

for something responsive and

active after the long pause

of passive service and doubt

wrapped memories which

placed one in an observing

quasi audience to the proscenium

platform of life

why can one no longer freely

occupy one's own body with the

intuition and non calculated

desires that lay before under

all circumstances

cohesion permeability possession

are rejected once again like adolescent

but they are needed in mid­life just

as they should have been

respected if not adhered to in pubescence

the want to love to need to exchange

and above all the need to be needed to be

loved to be wanted to share again even though

the through of the harvest

is ahead confronting me like

the budding limb, the sapped

emerging spring bloom that would

have its spring in the midst of autumn

all of this I need all of This

I want but can I have just a

small portion of some of this

to revise the process of that

ripened heart in its last stages

not to begin again but to begin anew

not to rhapsodize the past

but to renovate the present

which could affect the future

it is time to act and relinquish

the passive mature tense

be the me I am with warmth sensibility

and touches of the romantic the future is here

in the time of the present since the time has past

and only memories exist take me

teach me oh ripened heart 29/4/84

19. Upon The Closing Of My Fifty Second

The grey tones upon the white

sphere in various gradations

showing cavernous deeps and

mountainous highs bending upon

the convex surface suspended

in deep velvet blue, almost black

in the firmament of infinity

the moon

20. Upon The Closing Of My Fifty Fourth

A walk on the quai

along the chestnut trees

on a day in Autumn

the gravel and the sand

along the edge

of the granite rims

on the lake's side

only to know it was to end....

A walk on the hill

along the paths

of trees and grass

up and around

surrounded by the

high cornfields

on one side

only to know it was to end....

A walk on the lake

staring on the shadow side

with trees hundreds of

years of age

passing the viewing stands

on the Red lake

that has the color of black

only to know it was to end...

A walk around the pool

beneath the hot sun

with the small Parthenon

searing above yet below

the mountains surrounding it

the vista of the lakes with

Lucerne to the left, Rigi to the right

only to know it was to end....

A walk with each other

sharing ideas and discoveries

of our lives, strife and

the unknown

we spoke of things of personal trust

with signs of affection

only to know it was to end....

Now there is no quai

now there is no hill

now there is no pool

now there is no talk

with you

but without you

only to know it has its end....

21: Twenty One and Then Some.

M

M Madison avenue Madmen made Man-made Monoliths, Mocked by Modified moist, mixed Montage of men Making more Misalliance of Mind and matter

Magnifying with Mammoth meaning, Mink,Money and Methuselah;

Milking Myriads in mode in Monthly Magazines and managing a militant melee twixt Mogul and Moll mistress

Manipulating minority with majority.

ap 1959

 

22.

H

A Homo in a hetero-homo-sapaen universe holding on to a hierarchy of hardened holstered heroes belonging to hieronymous hallucinations helping heave his hurried heritage from Hermes to Hermaphrodites wanting to herald the hemisphere held by Hercules only to heighten that heinous haemorrhaging causing his hibernation and hieroglyphic history in Holland or Hollywood with his holster hip hugging hero who paid homage to that holocaust of honest honour hooked to hope and horoscope in a horrible horrid horse huck-a back, humping hundred hunting human humorous hurdles hypnotically and hysterically hemming his way to his hedonistic hedged home in heathen helmeted heat, Hear thy heart and head you haunting homo in hetero-homosapaen harmony.

23

J

A Jew in the Jungle of Jigs A Jeaned Jewess Jeopardised by Junked JigsJewelled Jew eyes Jumped, Jaunted by Jet Jazz-boesJuba Jigs Joyful, Jubilate with Judah's Junked JillJealous Jeaned Junked Jewess Jeered, Joggled Jabon,Jagged Jupon, by this Jocko Jobless Johnny Junky Jail Joiner;A Jug of Julep, Juliet Jewess, jade June and Junked Jazz Jig: Joined to James Joyce Jargon and J J Johnson's sounds.

24a

Lucerne luxury in lake and linden lingering lucid and lethargic limbs with laureland lonely latent in leadened leather larches on the lap ofthe land making a lair and labyrinth for ladybugs learning the legacy of the lustrous lion who lived legedly and lurked in th lunar lineage light legitimate legacy label of Lucerna

24b

The young Nuns on the old dunes

of the beach with wistful

windfull breeze blowing hair up,down, across the lovely features of the

adolescent devout to be

in black, billowy, bloomered, bland costume

non form, non descript, blank ankle, white sneaker

white sand, white wave, white grey, white blue,

blue white sky, empty........

25.

The Process of Time in One's Life

0­15 years of age = passive

16­40 years of age = active/incline

40 =65 years of age = active/decline

65 = 0 years of age = passive

Cycle of crisis in years

Minor 7 25 50

MAJOR 0 15 40 65

THAT IS THE FIRST AND ODD 7 YEARS THROUGH LIFE ARE THE BEST

0.through 7 positive/

7­through 14 negative/

15 through 21 ( +)/

22 through 28 ( ­)/

29 through 36(+)

and so on

Naturally it is only my calculations and it somehow meets other lives not only mine.

FRIENDSHIP I ALWAYS SAID YOU HAVE AS MANY FRIENDS AS FINGERS ON YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU ARE BORN

This means each finger represents a decade and each decade you pass you lose a friend. by ten you have 9 and at 50 you have five left and at 70 you have only three. This is very true in many cases.

Friendship II;

At twenty­ you take what you can

At thirty ­ hard to find

At forty ­ almost non existent

At fifty ­ you remember when you were twenty

At sixty ­ you read the obituaries

26

I raped a rose

I wantonly destroyed this

not knowingly

I sensed the texture

it was not sanguine

but sallow

of this bloom

I

touched the petal

the outer one

willingly

the sense was strange

not of a woman's skin

nor

anything sensual to human

but of the rose not red

but

yellow

I then raped the rose

I secured the flower

in hand

closed it with forefinger

cupped by

thumb

it didn't scream or speak

but merely resumed its serene position

this was alive but dumb

petal by petal

I tore from its person

amazingly

each started to lose life

there more than I encountered

clothed in yellow

I stopped and caressed each petal

easily, gently

not wantonly now

I am raping a rose

the pistols and stamens started to show

white yellow to bright yellow

apart it was sallow

I raped the rose

the fall is near

rose not alive

now

to return to the hive

ap 1953

FIN