anselm’s webern poem
This morning, thinking of old friend Anselm Hollo now in hospice, I read into MAYA, that gorgeous 1970 Cape Golliard book of his, gathering poems from 1959 to 1969. Here is the one that spoke to me most right now:
w e b e r n
1
switch off the light
the trees stand together
easier then
to be in our bodies
growing quietly
‘dem tode entgegen’
slow it is
a slow business
to grow a few words
to say love
2
“who will have mercy upon us
if we
have none”
merci is thanks
say thanks
for the small mercies
such as the breath
and the hand
still moving
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Poasis II: Selected Poems 2000-2024
“Todesguge/Deathfugue”
“Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021)”
“Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello”
“Conversations in the Pyrenees”
“A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly.” Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh
“An American Suite” (Poems) —Inpatient Press
“Arabia (not so) Deserta” : Essays on Maghrebi & Mashreqi Writing & Culture
“Barzakh” (Poems 2000-2012)
“Fox-trails, -tales & -trots”
“The Agony of I.B.” — A play. Editions PHI & TNL 2016
“The Book of U / Le livre des cormorans”
“Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan”
“Paul Celan, Microliths They Are, Little Stones”
“Paul Celan: Breathturn into Timestead-The Collected Later Poetry.” Translated & with commentary by Pierre Joris. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
And merci for this. One will hold a good thought.
It’s powerful stuff – I wish I were have effective with such minimal speech. He makes the slow business, the small mercies, seem so much more graceful than felt at times.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.