欧宝娱乐

You never ever quite finish with a book of poetry. It is always waiting to be dipped into...always.
Like old friends,
a reunion is always on the cards and always a pleasure.
Which is why I have only recorded the Starting Date,
in Athens, almost 40 years ago now,
because as far as I can tell,
I will never be finished with this book,
with these poems,
with Cavafy.

You go to poets or write poetry to get questions answered or to see the questions perfectly put.
Or for some clarification.
Not surprisingly, I was tempted to put the poetry books on the philosophy shelf.
But they do deserve a shelf of their own.

Sadly many people don't feel comfortable around poetry.It makes me frustrated, the way you get with people who won't go and see a doctor. Poets tend you and heal you when you didn't even know you were ailing. They can also needle you, just like a bloody doctor. Provoke you and make you take medicine you'd rather not, but of course it all helps in the long run.

Today poetry is ever-present in the lyrics of songs. The music is like the sugar that helps the medicine go down.

I met Constantine Cavafy close to home...his home, not mine. He was an Alexandrian Greek and I was living in Athens at that time teaching English. One of my students gave me the copy I still treasure. Probably thought I needed it. I did. Here was something I didn't know I needed - a refreshing, open and honest way of writing that I had never experienced with a poet before. Cavafy offered me a piece of himself, as all good friends do, which I used when I finally found a real need to express myself in poetry.

His poems were also on topics that resonated with me - poems about history, resignation, acceptance of life, frustrated passions, loss, the comfort of memory and...love. They were intelligent and lucid and did not hold back, readily confronting pain and Life's realities without sentimentality. They were strong potions. Alone in a foreign land I drank deep.

Often friends find you, as Cavafy came to me, unbidden.
Often you have to cast your net wide, browse, re-meet a few times before you are sure;
sometimes its love at first sight!
Enjoy your poets when you find them!!

FIDDLESTICKS

I prayed to God for aid and answers;
But one day found his ears upon the ground.

I sought counsel from the immutable stars;
But then saw one falling from the sky.

I looked for a plan in the lines of my hand;
But it only increased the lines on my brow.

Then Tarot cards came to hand;
But they only dealt in riddles and rhymes.

I played with the I Ching;
But got distracted playing fiddlesticks.

I turned to poetry in desperation;
And found only all my questions perfectly put.

Now I write poetry.

New Year's Day, 1985.

That's from me...now a gem from Cavafy:

LONG AGO

I'd like to speak of this memory,
but it's so faded now - as
though nothing's left
because it was so long ago, in
my adolescent years.

A skin as though of jasmine...
that August evening - was it
August? -
I can still just recall the eyes:
blue, I think they were...
Ah yes, blue: a sapphire blue.


See what I mean now???