Author: Christina Egan

Trefflich (Gazakrieg)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Trefflich

Ach, wozu noch Meeresblau
je beschwören und wozu
Wellenschlag und Morgentau,
wenn ein Paar bestickter Schuh
bunt aus Schutt und Asche schaut,
– angefaucht und fortgefegt –
und die namenlose Braut
nie mehr ihre Füße hebt,
nie ein Kind zum Himmel hält…
Ach, wie bleibt das Meer bloß blau?
Denn es stirbt die ganze Welt,
frißt der Drache eine Frau.
Fällt die Kugel einen Mann,
klagt ein ganzes Engelheer.
Lautlos schreit ein Schlüsselbund
a­­us dem Schrott,– doch hört ihn wer?
Paßt der Schlüssel auch ins Schloß,
hängt die Tür in schräger Wand,
denn ein treffliches Geschoß
riß das Haus halb in den Sand.
Immer wieder gibt es Krieg
voller Lügen, voller Lärm.
Niemals aber gibt es Sieg,
nur die Hoffnung wie ein Stern.

Christina Egan ©2024
(Gazakrieg)

In this poem, War is personalised as a hissing dragon burning, devouring, or blasting away everything in its way.

The title is a pun on an old word for “excellent”, literally “hitting precisely”: in a war, success is based on destruction.

On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian terror organisation Hamas committed a massacre and mass abduction in Israel, whereupon the Israeli Government launched a war on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. It has since attacked the West Bank and invaded neighbouring country Lebanon, where the terror organisation Hezbollah de facto rules. The aim on both sides is evidently genocide. This is destruction against destruction, revenge upon revenge, genocide versus genocide.

I am Singing my Song

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I am Singing my Song

Jug in shiny bright colours (yellow, red, blue, black) in front of yellow cloth..

My life is not about me:
It is about the mountains
rising all around the horizon
in the dense blue of dreams.
It is about the mud I am made of,
the little trees which I must water,
the tall trees which give me breath.
It is about the rivers around me,
running, running without rest
and singing without doubt.

My face is priceless:
My face is mine alone, and
an echo of my ancestors’ faces,
a signal of my descendants’ faces.
My face is a sacred lake,
a blurred mirror of the sky,
of the mountains and trees.
I am drinking the sun,
I am walking my way,
I am singing my song.

Christina Egan ©2022

Inspired by Navajo and other
Native American philosophy.

Navajo pottery. Photograph:
Woody Hibbard, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons.

Word cloud in green, red, blue, black on yellow. Words in the middle: singing, about, face, song, trees.
Word cloud in green, red, blue, black on yellow. Words in the middle: singing, about, face, song, trees.
Word cloud in green, red, blue, black on yellow, simply typed up as a square.

Three word clouds of this poem: one typed up on a Word document with all repetitions, two designed on the Simple Word Cloud Generator (left) and WordItOut (right), with the frequency of the words represented by their size and position. (You can click on the images to enlarge them.)

Via WordItOut, you can order badges or key-rings with the right-hand word cloud.

Buntbetupft

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Buntbetupft

Nur
einen
seligen
Sommer,
einen zweiten
und dritten tanzten
du und ich inmitten einer
buntbetupften Wiese unter dem
Summen der Hüpfer und Hummeln,
unter des Bussards hoher Wacht.
Und keiner von uns beiden
wußte, was bliebe,
und keiner
nannte es
Liebe.
Aber
das Leben
war gegeben,
wie es nur Kindern ist,
Heiligen oder Toren oder eben
Liebenden, und die Freude war stark
wie die Pracht der Mittsommersonne.
Die Erde war rund und bunt, und
ihre Haut duftete uns! Wir
drehten uns schnell,
alles drehte sich
um uns, es
war ein
Heute,
hell.

Christina Egan ©2021

Drawing of three old-fashioned spinning tops.

The shape of the poem emulates two children holding hands and whirling around, or two spinning-tops…

Illustration from ‘Children’s games throughout the year’ (1949) by Leslie Daiken.

Apfeltraum / Apple-dream

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Apfeltraum

Wohin die Liebe fällt
wie Apfelkerne oder so –
ins Irgend- oder Nirgendwo –
erblüht ein Apfeltraum
vom Garten Eden.

Das leuchtet und verwelkt…
Doch heimlich und gelegentlich,
vermeintlich gar versehentlich,
erwächst ein Apfelbaum
daraus im Leben.

Christina Egan ©2024

Pink book cover with romantic painting of couple under large apple tree in blossom.om.

Apple-dream

Wherever love may fall
like apple-pips perhaps
– into a field or cracks –
new blossom will enthral,
an apple-dream of Eden.

It burns and fades, that glow…
Yet sometimes secretly,
– by chance or destiny? –
the apple-dream will grow
into an apple-tree.

Christina Egan ©2024

Image: Cover art for sheet music (1920).

Lautlose Rede

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Lautlose Rede

Kurven von Tinte und Ketten von Lettern,
Wörter und Worte wie bunte Girlanden
steigen und ziehn über Erde und Meer…
Ketten von Lettern, die leuchten und flattern,
bunte Girlanden, die kreisen und landen,
zaubern dir lautlose Rede her…

Es ist bloß Papier, es sind bloß Gedanken,
doch bringen sie Herzen und Häuser ins Wanken
und fallen gleich Samen in wartenden Sand.
Was ist das Geheimnis der Blätter, der Briefe?
Als ob eine Seele die andere riefe…
Als ob ein Geist den andern entflammt!

Christina Egan ©2023

Three letters on colourful paper, with a real flower matching the ones pictured.

Some lovely handwritten letters from friends.
Photograph: Christina Egan ©2020.

With great thanks
to my friends who write letters to me –
some have done so for over forty years!

Hochzeitssegen / Wedding Blessing

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Hochzeitssegen

Malen die Schwalben verschlungene Schrift
aufs Blau wie ein uraltes Liebesgedicht,
baden die Wolken in rosigem Licht,
schwanger mit Regen, der Ernte verspricht,
während sich Finger in Finger verflicht
und Auge zu Auge nun schrankenlos spricht.
Segen der Erde schwelle und steige,
Segen des Himmels sinke und bleibe!

Christina Egan ©2017

             Wedding Blessing

Black & white photo: Intertwined hands of a woman and a man; below, their shoes.

May the sun shine and the stars
            On you both all the way.
May your wishes and your dreams
           All come true from today.
May the blessings from below
            Rise and swell, rise and swell.
May the blessings from above
            Sink and dwell, sink and dwell.

            Christina Egan ©2024

The English poem was inspired by the
German poem but is not a translation.

As often in my poetry, “Himmel” or
“above” may mean the sky or Heaven.

Photograph: Christina Egan ©2020

Indigo Pond

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Indigo Pond
(Hiroshige, Wisteria)

Deep blue sky, deep blue pond.
Two black-and-white feathers
drifting – no, two ducks!
Two specks in the indigo
like two pearls in enamel.

*

The arched wooden bridge
is as steep as a rainbow,
exasperating.
So we meet only rarely
right above the brilliant blue.

Christina Egan © 2016

Lower half dark blue water, upper half very steep bridge and branches in cream colours, dark blue strip of sky at top

Utagawa Hiroshige: Wisteria at Kameido Tenjin Shrine (1856). One hundred famous views of Edo, No. 57.

With thanks to the Royal Academy of Arts for the postcard and to the British Museum for the digital image.

In this Japanese verse pattern, the first three lines of each poem could stand for themselves, while the last two add another aspect.

The Red Helicopter (Tottenham)

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The Red Helicopter
(Tottenham)

Some of us are pushing the swings
in the park, a powerful pendulum,
some are hurrying for their daily bread,
counting the pennies in their pockets,
and all are treading on rustling leaves,
fallen too soon, too soon this year,
for the world is brittle with heat
and creaking and breaking apart.

The rain has come and gone
but the clouds have stayed:
No rainbow today
over the weathered church.
The blue emerges, the brightness
of grass, of the thousand things,
and the old oak stands smiling.
Higher the swings go and higher –

Then the sky bursts
with the lion’s roar
of the helicopter, closer, close,
here, the colour of blood.
And we look at each other
and fear the worst and
know it has happened
again.

A street between brick walls,
a random courtyard
or a random corner
has been stained,
and from the earth cries
someone’s blood,
someone’s brother’s blood,
our brother’s blood.

Christina Egan ©2023

I have seen the red helicopter of the emergency services land in parks in Tottenham (Lordship Recreation Ground and Bruce Castle Park). In both cases it was the middle of the day, and in both cases, a teenager had been stabbed, once fatally and once nearly so. Another young man was shot and left to die in Tottenham Cemetery. All these green spaces are vast and idyllic.

See Himmelblaue Uhr (Tottenham) for Bruce Castle Park as a haven of tranquillity and Gedächtnisgarten zu Tottenham for the old cemetery as a garden of peace.

rosengarten (I. tiefversteckt)

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rosengarten

I. tiefversteckt

wieviele monde sind uns noch beschieden
die ungeahnten sonnenglanz vergießen
wieviele rosen werden uns noch sprießen
aus blut und duft als wäre leben lieben?
wieviele strände dürfen wir genießen
im wilden norden und im kargen süden
wo winde endlos sich mit wellen wiegen
wieviele sommer sind uns noch geblieben?
du bist der tiefversteckte rosengarten
den ich nach langem suchen langem warten
betrübt doch immer hoffnungsvoll betrat.
du bist der mond der gleich der sonne leuchtet
du bist die brandung die den sand befeuchtet
du bist die erde wie am ersten tag.

Christina Egan ©2023

This sonnet forms the basis of a cycle of 14 poems, whereby each line furnishes the first line of a new sonnet (Continental pattern). Watch this space for the rose garden project (ROSENGARTEN).

This cycle is not about gardens alone or about islands, although many far-flung places will be reflected in these lines: it is about finding love and happiness, going through life together, finding liveable spaces…

Word cloud in reddish and yellowish colours on green; in the middle, "how many" "rose gardens", and a question mark.

Word cloud of ten German sonnets (rosengarten I-X),
generated on the Simple Word Cloud Generator.
In the chance arrangement, words picked out
by size and colour form the sentence:
“how many rose gardens where we,
(O) you, may yet live?”

P.S.:
You can now view a word cloud of all 14 sonnets at WordItOut
and have it printed on a mousemat or mug or fridge magnet!