16 Feb 2009 Leave a comment
in 2009, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round time, our times our culture, special people special occasions Tags: 2009, circling round time, our times our culture, special people special occasions
Day After #1
Day after New Year is
Continuation ordinaire:
Nothing changed except the number.
I‘m a yin/yang, pro-con person
Celebrating time that’s done.
Why the fireworks?
© Day After 1.2.2009
Time; A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Our Times, Our Culture;
Special People, Special Occasions;
Arlene Corwin
31 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 2008, love relationships, special people special occasions Tags: 2008, friendhips, love relationships, special people special occasions
Drinking Wine At Eva’s
You honored me
By sharing wine
I knew was rare.
I honored you
By drinking it –
I, who refuse the most.
We made a toast.
It was exquisite, as you said;
The taste, the look, the tint, the scent,
Went to the senses (and my head).
I relished it, aware
That you were sharing
Wine intended for a few
(Possibly just you)
And I, I was included.
© Drinking Wine Eva’s 5.31.2008
Love Relationships; Special People, Special Occasions;(eva)
Arlene Corwin
31 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 2008, birthday book, special people special occasions Tags: 2008, birthday book, special people special occasions
Day Of The Party
It’s over
You’re tired.
You’ve been fired up all day.
Oh, oh, Barbro,
This verse
Is getting worse each passing day;
I’ve bitten off more than is chewable,
Because though birthdays are renewable,
Seventy may
Never come again
Unless reincarnation
Is a fact, when
You will have to go through seventy,
The party, preparation,
Wine, food, friends
In worlds that have no ends.
Is that not something to look forward to?
This is your week.
© Day Of The Party 6.28.2008Birthday Book; Special People, Special Occasions; (barbro1 of 3)
Arlene Corwin
30 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 2008, birthday book, special people special occasions Tags: 2008, birthday book, special people special occasions
Continuing The Birthday Dance
The one and only June
When you were seven-
ty
We
Celebrated for a week,
Not only duty bound
But more because you are our friend,
And we have found
That seventy is special.
Flying on your birthday wings
The real deal
Lies somewhere where the music swings,
The wine is perfect,
And the things
That stamp us old
Turn into gold,
Continuing the birthday dance.
© Continuing The Birthday Dance 6.27.2008
Birthday Book; Special People, Special Occasions; (Barbro)
Arlene Corwin
30 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 2008, circling round eros, love relationships, love relationships; circling round eros, special people special occasions Tags: 2008, circling round eros, love relationships, special people special occasions
Christmas Morning Hand-Knit Socks
We made love this morning
Listening to the radio.
Two things going on,
Both giving pleasure, neither one
Distracting from the other.
Passion, sensitivity;
Sometimes coming, sometimes not.
This Christmas morning in your pair
Of rainbow-colored, hand-knit socks:
Radio and hand-knit socks
And sex
That rocks.
© Christmas Morning Hand-Knit Socks 12.26.2008
Circling Round Eros; Love Relationships; Special People, Special Occasions*
Arlene Corwin
*Anna, who made them
14 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 1998, birth death & in between, circling round energy, circling round vanities, circling round woman, lessons to be learned, life, our times our culture, special people special occasions Tags: 1998, birth death & in between, circling round energy, circling round vanities, circling round woman, lessons to be learned, life, our times our culture, special people special occasions
How Not To Save Money
A good job:
You’ve got it!
No snob,
And yet you eat out
Quite a lot;
All over town,
This restaurant, that café,
This talked about museum, that play,
This club,
This pub –
Why not?
You’re earning pounds, so use them.
A good flat, clothes,
Of course!
No clothes horse,
But what’s ‘in’ is key –
Not consciously,
But in the stream.
Friends, trips –
One needs the new,
To come to grips
With life. One’s young,
Headstrong;
One doesn’t smoke,
And one or two good trips a year
Do well to stoke
The fires.
Still no risk of getting old,
Growing bald,
Losing out to someone younger
On the job or in the home.
The time’s to find out
Who you are, and what to do
About the days and nights you roam
The streets with gobs
Of energy, a heart that throbs.
Philately, a cup of tea,
Reflecting on the death of days,
The endless, certain, fickle ways
Of change –
Now’s not the time to pan the range,
Examine change.
It’s all so strange,
It’s all so new:
Now is the time to do.©
How Not To Save Money 98.7.2
13 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 1998, birth death & in between, circling round nature, circling round reality, circling round time, circling round vanities, circling round woman, circling round wrinkles, I Is Always You is We, lessons to be learned, life, special people special occasions Tags: 1998, birth death & in between, circling round time, circling round vanities, circling round woman, circling round wrinkles, I Is Always You is We, special people special occasions
But Now You’re Seventy
But now you’re seventy,
And fifty-six seems young.
At eighty, seven decades will seem juvenile,
And you, the wee marsupial,
A worm in mommy’s pung.
For such are our perceptions:
Relative and without substance.
Now you’re seventy.
Repeat it!
See the troll for what is:
Foolish, impish chimera
Whose scornful aim it is
To move the goalpost back and forth,
East to west, south to north –
Making you a little you:
What rot! What poppycock!
A crock of shit!
With each new decade you are it!
More refined.
It’s all a trade-off:
Seeing time and what it’s made of:
Pain’s long trip from breath to breath
Where something ‘fab’ awaits.
©
But Now You’re Seventy 98.2.16Circling Round Woman; I Is Always You Is We; Birth, Death & In Between;
Time; Special People, Special Occasions; Circling Round Vanities; Circling Round Wrinkles;
Arlene Corwin
11 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 1997, definitely didactic, I Is Always You is We, special people special occasions, the processes creative thinking meditative Tags: 1997, definitely didactic, I Is Always You is We, love relationships, special people special occasions, the processes creative creative thinking meditative
You Can’t Fool Your Friends
You write a poem.
You write a ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.
It smacks of insincerity
Your friends are sharp and sensitive;
They know a compromise
On palette or in word:
The visual, the heard;
Straightforwardness and honesty,
Too little or too much. –
They’ll give you all the feedback
That’s required to re-touch.
But if, in your travail and sweat
You’ve made your peace with what you met
During conception and inception,
Working-through
To a conclusion that convinces you,Then stick to it now matter what –
And thankful for the friends you’ve got,
To thine own self be true.
Allowed to bash at faulty views,
And at your pace
(Which can take years, for after all,
It’s not a race).
You cannot fool your friends, but still,
They’re not inside your soul
Seeing the whole,
As you perceive it.
They have their ways to receive it –
And that’s lovely.
But an artist’s life’s reflective, lonely.
Seen from that perspective,
Friends are not the folk you pool
Your art’s results with, but a tool
For transformation,
Further change, modification.
Cruel they may be,
Fuel they are
Gruel for future art.
And jewel –
For the friend you cannot fool
And ought not to resist –
The catalyst –
Is your most loyal propagandist
And reminder.
11 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in 1997, our times our culture, special people special occasions, swedish book Tags: 1997, I Is Always You is We, special people special occasions, swedish book
When Guest Is Gone
When guest is gone
And you’ve been a good hostess,
And been, as they say,
The host with the ‘mostess’;
Done all you can for the sake of
The fun and the best for the guest,
Cooking and chatting and eating with zest,
Osmosing the beauty connected with duty;
Voiced every boast that can come from a host
With good will and good cheer
And your very best beer,
In the strain to provide entertainment;
Guest gone and all’s been done;
You’re glad to go back, change the clocks;
A tad sad –it’s natural
A paradox.
When guest is here, the atmosphere,
Is prejudicial to deep peace:
Superficial.
The wish to fill the bill kills stillness.
Even conversations true
Must tire the guest and tire you.
You’ve done your best;
And he’s gone home again to rest,
Happy to return.
And even though he’s learned and earned
On this ten day vacation week –
Skin now brown where it was bleak,
A new found language, so to speak –
He’s been away from the old clique,
And glad to travel back to Hackney
Where the journey first excited:
Coming back’s the thing,
The yearning to be on the wing
Replaced by ‘Happy to be home!’
When week has gone,
Both guest and host hone normalcy:
Remembering the sun, the rain,
Mosquito pain, the false champagne,
The Nordic sun that didn’t wane,
The foal’s white mane
Looking to a next again.
These days refrain a memory.
©
When Guest Is Gone (Rod) 97.8.13I Is Always You Is We; Special People, Special Occasions; Swedish Book;
Arlene Corwin
11 Jan 2009 Leave a comment
in special people special occasions, vaguely about music Tags: 1997, special people special occasions, vaguely about music
The Songbird
I heard a singer and was moved,
Which proves not much.
We’re touched by mediocrity,
The second-rate,
The bait of glamour.
Hers was honesty,
Simplicity dug deep in skill.
Talent and ability.
Oh, so good, voice many-hued.
Interpretation, even the
Pronunciation, woven in
The loveliness.
A jazz parfait: a marmalade,
Jade luminesence
Honesty, simplicity,
Substance in each nicety;
Who wouldn’t want to sing so well,
That those who heard would feel compelled
To tell the world what you exude
Though under-known and undervalued?
(such a gift might give me hubris where, too satisfied,
I’d have to watch for sins of pride.)
For now, there’s happiness-near-bliss,
Aesthetic saturation
Having heard this songbird sing.*
©
The Songbird 97.10.4Special People, Special Occasions; Vaguely About Music;
Arlene Corwin
* Sue Raney
Arlene Corwin Poetry 