Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Scheherazade by Richard Silken

I found this poem over at Strange Magnetism and had to share it. Gorgeous isn't it?

SCHEHERAZADE

Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
                                                        and dress them in warm clothes again.
      How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
until they forget that they are horses.
               It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
      it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio,
                    how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
                                                                                        to slice into pieces.
Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means
      we’re inconsolable.
                                           Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
These, our bodies, possessed by light.
                                                               Tell me we’ll never get used to it.                                         
- Richard Silken

3 comments:

  1. Absolutely lovely. What a good find! part elegy, part celebration, it reminds me of 'Animals' by Frank O'Hara:

    Have you forgotten what we were like then / when we were still first rate / and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth

    It's no use worrying about Time / but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves / and turned some sharp corners

    the whole pasture looked like our meal / we didn't need speedometers / we could manage cocktails out of ice and water

    I wouldn't want to be faster / or greener than now if you were with me O you / were the best of all my days

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  2. Aaah so beautiful. I love a good poem - it's like it speaks straight to you

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  3. Seen this? FavoriteWords.com - Totally genius!

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