domingo, 29 de julho de 2007

Let's

let’s lend ourselves to the wind
let’s

Rich Forster

1
TO DON GRUSIN

Poetry is the reach for words.
Music is poetry of sound.
Loves are made of both.

Boulder, April 11, 2002 – 11 a.m.

2
PAIRS
for Ramsay Thurber

Fishes kiss,
birds flutter together
and wings can fly away
in pairs.
It takes two to bind
and two to love
like pairs in Noah’s arc.
Clutching hands,
enfolding arms
and long striding legs.
All are pairs
and nothing is meant
to be alone.

Boulder, April 12, 2002 – 11:45 a.m.

3
A DAY IN APRIL
April, and anything’s possible.
Charles Wright

Your
unearthing
moving
waving
soul
wanders
yonder
high and low.

It moves me
to the top of my breath,
stirs me to my deepest depths.

A touch, a scent,
a sense of being,
a taste of dew
and healing.

This is wonderful:
to know where you are.

Boulder, April 11, 2002 – 7:50 a.m.

4
54th CoNFERENCE on World Affairs
for Rich Forster, Jay Golden, Andy Ihnatko, Paul Jones, Laura Asturias, Angelica Goroditcher, Liz Weir, Don Grusin, Lillian Boute, Jerrie, Jon and Ethan Hurd, Joaquin Munoz, Maddalena Fallucchi, Dorian Haarhoff, Herbert Kohl, Ramsay Thurber, Ted Mott, Terry McNally and all participants.

Now that we’re here
(and we found each other)
what will be left next?
Nothing comes from nothing
and sure we came because of us.
What is left to old comrades to say?
Why are there so many unanswered questions?
We need no answers
and yet they are asked.
We’re here now
and we’ve come to meet each other
and this is
what it is all about.

Boulder, April 10, 2002 – 1:05 a.m.

5
PASSING LIFE
for Rich Forster

My life has passed by so quickly
and we are older now.

What we say is no longer important.
You are.

Standing in silence
and solitude,
what can I tell you
that I would not have told
myself?

The hours pass by
and yet we are still here
until the moment
we no longer are.

This is what we’ve sought.
Life in a sea shell,
in an instant
of eternity.

Forget all the rest.
From now on I shall
remember you on the top of the hill
and nothing more will do.

Boulder, April 10, 2002 – 1:30 a.m.

6
YOU’VE SEEN THE FIRE

You’ve seen the fire.

Thoughts glowing
a thousand faces
before you.

Past emotion
past pain.

All will be gone.

But before I go
I must tell you
never was life
in such a
mood.

Boulder, April 10, 2002 – 11:45 p.m.

7
THE WIND BLOWS

The wind blows through your body.
You live by the fresh air.
Love feeds you
and nourishes your dreams.
You live and pass unseen.
The big sea is free,
so is the wild bear.
I’ll see eternity pass
until I can forget you.
I`ve seen you smile
a countless times.
I keep this image to myself.
So we are free to go
and free to stay.
It is not just that I love you:
I just love you back.

On the plane from Boulder to New York on April 13, 2002 at 12:20 p.m.

8
SO LITTLE TIME

So little time
so little room
it took in our lives
to spread its glorious scent.
A thousand years went by
in just a second.
I love you
as you love me and
I accept it.

On the plane from Boulder to New York on April 13, 2002 at 12:28 p.m.

9
QUILT
for Ted Mott

Life is a thread and needle
on the tip of your fingers.
Once you stop sewing,
work will rest undone.

Never stop,
and life will be
complete.

On the plane from Boulder to New York on April 13, 2002 at 12:40 p.m.
Over the clouds, somewhere.

10
LIVES CONVERGE

Lives converge
as crossroad bends,
two becoming one.
Either it is my life
that became yours
or now we have
a life of our own.
If we built nests
like birds we could
leave them as a sign.
There and then
our lives bent
and we lived as one.

On the plane from Boulder to New York on April 13, 2002 at 12:50 11

11
LADY OF THE RINGS
for Larise

Dressed in black
she who came late
was there all blonde
and in awe,
blessed in lost admiration
and love flung its wings open
and embraced her.

Boarding on the plane in Newark Airport to Boston, April 13, 2002 – 6:10 p.m.

12
WORDS ARE HERE AGAIN

Words are here again.
Silence subdues
and a whisper flows
back and fro.
From leaves hustling,
water flowing over pebbles,
cascading shadows coming back
as the sun turns in the sky.
Words are new
and bring new wishes.
As I move in haste,
my words talk to me
and make me cry.

Boarding on the plane in Newark Airport to Boston, April 13, 2002 – 6:20 p.m.

13

It takes a lifetime to know yourself,
but it takes a moment to fall in love.

Boulder, April 11, 2002

14

When love hurts,
it is not that
you are loving too much.
You are loving much less.

Arriving in New York from Boulder, April 13, 2002 – 1 p.m.

15

We take life at full speed.
We take life at full blast.
That’s why we leave seeds,
that’s why we live fast.

Arriving in New York from Boulder, April 13, 2002 – 1:10 p.m.

16

The joy of being found
and having found you
gives me more reason
to believe love is the only
means of reality.

Salem, Sunday, April 14, 2002 – 8:47 p.m.

17
ON THE RIB OF TIME

The light comes in
and there’s you.
I hear the words linger
mingled by your silence.

I breathe your words
and they fill me
with more joy
and music.

I wait.
The minutes pass by
striding behind me
stirring in coolness
moving ahead
while I float.

I wonder what we were
supposed to be
if we never met.

Walk in the distance
along paths of wonder
and let yourself be lost
in awe.

Light is your secret word.
Your light within.

Boston, April 16, 2002 – 5:25 p.m.

18
82 F
for Sergio

Lie.
Hands lie
on the pink colored chest
and breathe quietly
resting
on the shadowy hours
and lingering away
the fluttering curtains
of open breezy windows.
Sunny. Warm.
Eyes closed
and I dream.
Dusk.
Billions of atoms of air
spread while
nothing happens
here.

Cambridge, April 17, 2002 – 9:25 p.m.

19

Each poem has a story.

Never life
had so many colors.

A dusky sky
starless and blue.

Memories pass
and life is where we are.

New York, Thursday, April 18, 2002 – 8:30 p.m.
W 26th St. x 5th Ave.

20
DRINKING TEA

Awake.
The wind moves
stirs my soul
and I wander.
Up & down.
Yet souls were made to wander.
Foolish beams.
Stillness in the air
which moves the wind.
Skies.
The deeper love is,
the calmer it will be, says Rumi.
Move not.
and there will be joy.
Stir not.
and there will be comfort.
Think not.
Only a blessing can be heard
and seen.
Doubt not.
The unmoving breath
whispers in silence.
Listen:
love has no other sound.

New York, April 18, 2002 – 9:05 p.m.
At Starbuck’s on 5th Ave x 33rd St.

21

He
who moves in silence
is beyond my dreams.

Beyond my dreams
I touch reality
with feeble hands.

What I touch is new
and daunting.

Fearless I am
for dreams are what
we wish and they
are here
now.

New York, Friday, April 19, 2002 – 12:20 p.m.
On 224 E 47th St.

22

Why,
I wondered,
this is beyond
reason and thought.

My,
what can be better
than luck?

New York, Saturday, April 20, 2002 – 2:20 p.m.
E 41st St. x 3rd Ave at Starbuck’s

23
BUDDHA’S DELIGHT

Will you be here tomorrow?
“Tomorrow will know.”

Will I be happy?
“Are you happy now?”

Can anyone be that happy after all?

“There’s always a place
for happy things to happen,”
says the smiling Buddha.

New York, Saturday, April 20, 2002 – 2:25 p.m.
E 41st St. x 3rd Ave at Starbuck’s

24
INVISIBLE WIND

You’re the invisible wind that moves the wheat.

An invisible force moves the wheat and gives it joy.
The wheat field is there waiting to be blown by the wind.

If there’s no wind, it will stay motionless.
For it would be unmoving without it.

Departing at JFK Airport, NY, April 20, 2002 – 9:55 p.m.

25

I would wait
for the world
to turn again
before I could start over.

I would stay still
waiting for the hours to stir ahead,
whirl, drum, hurry,
letting me be there again.

Life is a garden of slumbering dreams
and we’ve come to wake them up.

Departing at JFK Airport, NY, Saturday, April 20, 2002 – 10:10 p.m.

26

Now that tasks are taken
and done,
we can be aware of love,
as a duly part of our own.

Rio, April 22, 2002 – 6:46 p.m.

27

If
everything I ask
is given and
everything I have
is shared,

everything I am
is a whole and holy
being.

Rio, April 21, 2002 – 5:15 p.m.

28
HERE I AM

Here I am
away from torments
new and fresh
so silent and still.

Here I will stay until morning is over
and dusk follows.

I will wait and smile at each movement
of branches, as they turn from greener to brown.

No frown from my eyes will I fear.
No time will exist for me.
What is there is here. And we know our ways.

Wild is the storm that passes untamed.

Rio, April 24, 2002 – 2:42 a.m.

29
THERE’S A MOON

There's a moon inside every
human being, says Rumi.

And so it shines for the sun lightens its orb.

Let the moon be, constantly changing its face,
as a sigh of farewell and dew.

See the wonder of man. Stars move because
of him, and he, because of stars.

May all skies last as long as he does.

Rio, April 24, 2002 – 6:10 p.m.

30
REFLECTION
for Rich

You
may
be
the
wind
blowing
the
tree
leaves
There
moving
swaying
in
the sun
Never
old

You
may
be
the
dew
drop
dangling
on
the leaf
humid
Never
thirsty

Your
reflection
upside
down
on
the
mirrored
lake

Rio, April 26, 2002 – 7:54 a.m.

31
YES

Yes, candles burn faster when we are not looking at them.
Days are quickly gone and yet they still linger
in our memory like a stain of some kind.
Time is long past and we stick to days that’ll always be here.

“I am still learning.”

Rio, May 8, 2002 – 11:24 p.m.

32
SILENT
for Rich

Hush.
Silence now.
Weathers change and rains come.
All is here where I can feel it.
No despair allowed.
No forgetting of faces until
I know myself to be the first
and last to live.
I draw my card
and will play the tune I meant
before.
Never let days die.
Never forget to live
more.

Rio, May 8, 2002 – 11:35 p.m.

33
INSIDE THE TEMPEST

lie inside the tempest
and shake the stars out of heaven

souls stir quietly ashore

move inside nights of coolness
fall over mountains
with its green wishes and blue hours

move inside faith
wait until nothing is said
and stay longer on still waters

lie inside the tempest
and wait

torments will fade away

Rio, May 9, 2002 – 2:37 p.m.

34
WRAP
for Marge

In this night of discomfortI will take my white blanketsand fly to the other sideof every planet I can imagine.
Marjorie L. Compfort

Wrap yourself in white gowns
and fly away
like geese climbing up the air.
Fly ahead of wind
where time and past are
dim sorrows.
Wander about the skies
and when you come back
home may you fall
deep asleep.

Rio, May 16, 2002 – 10:18 a.m.

35
UPON YOU

Upon you there are mainland and shores
washed by storms and stillness softly shrugging
its elbows in patient look and darkness.

Upon you there are winds
gliding your visions and nightmares.

You may close your eyes
and will still be there in moving awe.

Come and rest a little more.
There’s nothing to be done
and yet we’ve done it all.

Rio, May 17, 2002 – 11:23 a.m.

36
TIME

Time rests in poor shadows, but we don't belong there.
Wishes flow on rivers bends and lie beyond horizons.
Paths guide us to nowhere.
We are clustered in our straits.
Rims of time let longings pass as breezes and light.
Shut the doors of tomorrow.
We’ll travel to our destiny unbound.

Rio, Saturday, May 18, 2002 – 2:44 p.m.

37
ALL IS HEAVEN
To Karl

A witches’ sky, a witches’ heaven,
all of which we never know.
Daunt me until dusk. Dazzle until dawn.
Fair closeness to one’s eye. What I perceive is what is not.
Once I've chosen, all fates are mine.
Wonder what was left. In all I know, there's a heart.
A heart hidden by the hand.

Rio, Tuesday, May 21,2002 – 4:57 p.m.

38
TAKE ONE

Take the path to the left. Force the entranceand go straight ahead.
Move forward and wait still.Halt at the red light – there’s a train on the crossroad.
Look right and turn left again.
Life in a grinis all you’ve got to spare.

Rio, May 22, 2002 – 5:54 p.m.

39
HUSH

whatever stillness we endeavor
there is a movement within
of rain soaking the grass
ants running beneath the earth.

wait and the silence will break in little pieces
of sheer joy.

Rio, May 29, 2002 – 2:45 a.m.

40
IF

If we knew
we could say hello.

If there's no sign of fire
the house will be dead.

Carry nothing in bare hands.
O wisdom of nothingness.

Fill the cup with milk.

Motionless clouds vanish in the wind.

If only we knew
we could say goodbye.

There is much more to come.

Rio, May 29, 2002 – 12:37 p.m.

41
DOOM

Sometimes we are doomed
to be where we shouldn't
and live by the sea of horrors
or thrown in the deepest cliff,
the monster-like well of our sorrows.

No curse can drag me to the bottom
or lift me above the clouds.
Whereas I find no time nor place
to stand, I will, in tears,
wrap my heart in rags.

Wait until morrow is done.
Our wills shall be fulfilled.

Rio, June 24, 2002 – 5:26 p.m.

42
MANY SEASONS

You breathe for life
and life breathes in you.
You search for light
and light is in you.
You reach for poetry
and poetry is in you.

Either winter or summer,
all seasons are there for little changes,
for twists in time,
for curling in bed
and shaving off speed.

A winter asks for settling down
and waiting.

For now, let’s wait.

Rio, June 30, 2002 – 2:04 a.m.

43
RESHAPE

I remember well.
The day broke in pieces
memories of Ellis
Island and Lady Liberty
dressed in green
vanquishing the oceans.
I remember going back
on Christmas Day
on Valentine's
and it was all there:
The Plaza
Central Park
Broadway
Fifth Avenue and
SoHo.
I was there but people
knew their heart was broken
pieces missing
split seconds
of farewell.
I'll never forget.
Neither will they.
Now
it is
time to
reshape.

Rio, September 11, 2002 – 11:06 p.m.

44
FRESH STARTS

Once we were kids playing
in the yard.
Everyday it was all new.

Let’s start it again.

Rio, November 22, 2002 – 11:20 p.m.