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
(Visited 229 times, 1 visits today)
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.