This is a project that I like to call meditation through poetry and it happened on Christmas Eve when Michael sat by d ocean and sent his poetry through d waves in my house where I received d salty smell of d eternal life that we live. —Mitko Gogov, 31 Dec. 2011 Ed. note: The poems below are from Mitko's blog, in _d @Potru's wor(L)d.
Poem for Mitko
Today, when Ziggy (the dog) and I go down to the ocean we’ll send you a poem Some wild ribbon Invisible soul birds in flight across chrome waters We will wait for your silent reply Look for a word and world of peace Riding back over bright breakers from your land- locked European country * A Sea-Monkey I was born and raised in Florida Learned my liquid life Now, I am pulled by the moon Birth and inevitability Yes, the ocean gives us power Tells us the rolling universe does not belong to us No matter how hard we try to destroy it * Godless power Chrome waves Sun’s flames soak my brow Ziggy stops to dig in the sand Barks at the blue-black raven calling from the stranded boulder on Shell Beach * I’d go crazy living on an island surrounded by a fevered sea of woe and sapphire horizons I plan for a busier tomorrow But I can’t get the ocean out of my head You could crave another island But whatever’s there I can’t describe Lupine, thistle, and wild oats on the bluff Something I think I see, but can’t Imagination inscribed in the mercurial sky I wait for an explosion * This is not a good year for Tyrants! Copper skies above Tahrir Square Here comes that crashing thought That currency I sent away over the expanse to be read by you, Mitko Tear gas clouds in Tahrir Square Coming back tied and frayed around a rugged headland We have had enough of this enslavement! Men and women, boys and girls with stones Give them what they want Don’t wait for permission from the headquarters Authorization from the Opera Live long and without endorsements * The dog still barks, but can’t say exactly what he believes Is that a dragon or civilization burning on the beach? Coming in or going out I can’t tell which way the poetry is running A wave followed by another wave followed by another Tide of the underworld rushing overall, blowing silver over shipwrecked shores and tortured skies A sleeper wave slashing Pillars of… * I asked the California badger on the road back home Do you find this dream amusing? There was something vicious in his response Is the human condition just entertainment? I ask the badger about Political gamesmanship and coppery metaphors Slung across the heavens like Handel’s Messiah? No reply! This is not a domestic animal! * O, Brother from another great continent Beyond shimmering cataclysmic fever Foam and light rushing up over my feet Mammoth rubbings on mammoth stones… Oh Macedonian Brother I went down to the ocean today and the sky and sun and water were blinding and gorgeous chrome, so I kind of got caught in light and isolation and could think of nothing else .
“Poem for Mitko” ©2011 Michael Rothenberg
All rights reserved
.OCEANia and :Christmas
.lips are touching salty waves, oceans playin’ with d messages lost in them. We think that inside float maternal fluid which nourishes us while we sleep as teddy bears, as kangaroos in d wombs inside. * We fly with our messages like freed birds from their cage… Love is transferred through cosmic channels! ..an uncle somewhere far across the pond sit on the shore, caressing the existence of his thoughts sending them far away to me to be returned as hidden universes. The day ends… …and, somewhere there Jesus is born. * dogs bark in joy, about one I know for sure. In these bottles we keep all d messages, those which are yet to be sent condemning the mystery of not knowing. !Telepathy is a pact with mice. .. you hear me? * We signalize d existence, as fireflies in summer. .. even d Indians would envy us for d art of connecting. Do we hear each other or d waves are too strong?! I hear how d water cleans our souls. these salty rocks one day will fall apart! We run lost as we should win this marathon, but not all waves end at the same place? * Embraced each other with d thoughts that returns —boomerang technique is more active nowadays. The end of reason is near, in d rain we hide d cry of our fear. At the end of the day :all stars are falling down —but they not fade; they glow us from closer! night lights, they make d passion for more myth! * We reserve space in d universe as if d hotel of our life has remained with(out) no rooms. Guests are our memories… fill d beds and under them they hide Us from ourselves..* Here the lake is calm …dreaming of its elder brothers and sisters will there be a river born to bring me at d sea, will there be a sea born to bring me to you? * The Absolute dives with special equipment we the trackers are dolphins we close our snouts while we breathe, yet, our ears fill with water. Can we hear d water composition for the rain, for d snow that melts in us or icicles are born? In my house a wave is coming, from d ocean is, We say… on my walls dark blue worlds aquarium filled with indigo sky .my fishes are dreaming d Big Water Lemurians dears ~ .
Introductory note and “.OCEANia and :Christmas” ©2011 Mitko Gogov
All rights reserved
Mitko Gogov…
…lives in Macedonia, where he writes poetry, short stories, essays and journalism. He writes haiku, senryu, renga, which he publishes occasionally in the micro blogosphere twitter, but once published in London by Yoko Ono as well. His work so far has been present and translated in several anthologies, collections and journals for literature and art in India, Pakistan, Philippines, USA, Russia, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria… His collection “Ice Water” was published in 2011 in Serbia, and in 2014 issued in Macedonia, in the edition “Fires” for the publishing house “Antolog,” supported by the Ministry of culture. Photo from 100TPC World Conference in Salerno, Italy, ©2015 Michael Dickel
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