Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 46

CarrollBlog 9.4

'P.S.'

by Franz Wright

I close my eyes and see

a seagull in the desert

high, against unbearably blue sky.

There is hope in the past.

I'm writing to you

all the time, I am writing

with both hands,

day and night.

CarrollBlog 9.1

I must learn to love the fool in me, the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes to many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and break promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.

Theodore I. Rubin

CarrollBlog 8.31

Not so not so

My soul does not believe me

My heart has some personal doubts

My mind doesn't listen

My health is slipping

My youth has passed away

My family snapshots do not live

My country is now different

Even hell has misled because it's cold

I covered myself completely so I couldn't be seen

But a tear ran out

And undressed in public

Jan Twardowski

CarrollBlog 8.29

Overheard Written Down

by Jan Twardowski

The door shuddered – who is it?

– Death

entered a slight teeny-weeny with a scythe like a matchstick

Surprise. Eyes agog

and it screeched

– I came for the canary

CarrollBlog 8.26

"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is...

CarrollBlog 8.25

Light Is More Important Than The Lantern

Light is more important than the lantern,

The poem more important than the notebook,

And the kiss more important than the lips.

My letters to you

Are greater and more important than both of us.

They are the only documents

Where people will discover

Your beauty

And my madness.

Nizar Qabbani

CarrollBlog 8.24

"To love.To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance.To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the

vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.To respect strength, never power.Above all, to watch.To try and understand.To never look away.And never, never, to forget

Arundhati Roy

CarrollBlog 8.23

Oddjob, a Bull Terrier

by Derek Walcott

You prepare for one sorrow,

but another comes.

It is not like the weather,

you cannot brace yourself,

the unreadiness is all.

Your companion, the woman,

the friend next to you,

the child at your side,

and the dog,

we tremble for them,

we look seaward and muse

it will rain.

We shall get ready for rain;

you do not connect

the sunlight altering

the darkening oleanders

in the sea-garden,

the gold going out of the palms.

You do not...

CarrollBlog 8.20

‎"Maybe instead of strings it's stories things are made of, an infinite number of tiny vibrating stories; once upon a time they all were part of one giant superstory, except it got broken up into a jillion pieces, that's why no story on its own makes any sense, and so what you have to do in a life is try and weave it back together, my story into your story, our stories into all the other people's we know, until you've got something that to God or whoever might look like a letter or even a...

CarrollBlog 8.19

FAREWELL

by Agha Shahid Ali

"At a certain point I lost track of you.

You needed me. You needed to perfect me.

In your absence you polished me into the Enemy.

Your history gets in the way of my memory.

I am everything you lost. You can't forgive me.

I am everything you lost. Your perfect Enemy.

Your memory gets in the way of my memory:

If only somehow you could have been mine, what wouldn't

have happened in the world?

I'm everything you lost. You won't forgive me.

My memory keeps ...