Friday, March 22, 2024

Elsewhere A While, an E-book of poems

 


The poems in this collection look outward toward whatever I may have learned from some places I may have been a long time ago. Each was written spontaneously, scribbled down, and now I have taken them from many old notebooks that I've accumulated over the decades. 

They reflect immediate impressions, and they address questions of motion and travel and who I and others with me may have been at a particular time. 

This collection is meant to be a companion to my last one, It Must Be, which is a collection of inward-looking poems that were also compiled from random notes that go all the way back to the late 1980s.

The cover is from a photograph I shot in the city of Trabzon on the Black Sea in Turkey. This is from one wall of the Hagia Sophia there (not the one in Istanbul). Hagia Sophia, in English, means Holy Wisdom. It was built as a Greek Orthodox church, and in 1461,when Mehmed II conquered Trabzon, it was converted into a mosque . 

Here is a link to some history of the Hagia Sophia in Trabzon. https://www.historyhit.com/locations/hagia-sophia-trabzon/

There are no poems in this collection about Turkey. These poems and the impressions that engendered them come from a much earlier period in my life. 

The geographic areas are Europe and North America, with one numbered translation of a Ghazal from the Farsi of the great Persian poet, Hafez.


Table Of Contents

I.

Waputaki Cinnabar

With Teresa In Santa Fe

The Mission Bells Are Softly Ringing

Border Problem

The 10, The 5, The 405

Two For David Strohm

Interlude, Manzanar

Soaking Up Marconi Beach

Once Late Fall At Plum Island

First Baptist Church Of North Oxford Annual Rummage Sale

In Grafton Village

Six East Coast Rivers

The Dead Find Us In Mississippi

A Champagne Socialist, 2008

Detroit Vermont Cucamonga

II.

Ghazal 374

Dreamers Get Off At Dusseldorf

Alexanderplatz Chrysalis

Amsterdam Tailored

Mascara And Puritan

Toward Gravesend

Colors On The Fringe Of Galway Bay

Ambidextrous Asthmatic Cowboy

Driver, Passenger, Pedestrian

Time Is Both Burden And Salvation

Stars Speak In Quasi Haikus

Dishwasher Days

Animal, Vegetable, Irrational

Rumors Of Plummeting Space Junk


Here is a sample. This is Ghazal 374 by Hafez, translated with a generous amount of assistance from Baha Sadr, a native speaker of Farsi originally from Tehran who is now an American citizen.


 Ghazal 374



translated from the Ghazaliyat of Hafez

by Baha Sadr and John Michael Flynn


Pull from the earth the petals of a flower

and pour out a glass full of dark red wine

Horizon wide open we will rent you asunder

and create in your stead a new master plan


If the armies of despair begin to riot

and slay each lover through the heart

then with all the lovers I will certainly join

and by every root take those armies down


One man among us sings vainly of his wisdom

another spins yarns about beauty and charm

but for truth in these tales and bold suppositions

let’s before them place a judge’s decision


Come with us, come to the wine cellar

if Paradise be the medicine you require

From the bottom of your dipper full of wine

spills each eternal drop of Paradise divine


Proper speech and the music of the cosmos

are what no one wants here in the city of Shiraz

Let us seek the wines of another land

where we can rise with the sun, enlightened

where we can rise with the sun, enlightened


There was a brief period when Baha Sadr and I travelled about giving readings together. I wrote short poems that I sometimes attempted to sing as a way to accompany his playing of the Persian setar, and various percussion instruments, including a rain stick. 

We enjoyed our experiment in the cross-pollination of cultures and, as I recall, those in attendance appeared to enjoy what we had to offer. 



Above is a photo of Baha I shot either in 1988 or '89.   

Below are links to more information.

This is about Hafez. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/hafez 

This is about the ghazal as a cultural staple and form of poetry. https://www.ipassio.com/blog/ghazal


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