SEASONS

Die Welt ist still

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Die Welt ist still

Ich sitze unter einem Baum
im Blätterzelt, im Schattenkreis;
die Welt ist still und bunt und heiß,
hoch oben wölbt sich weißer Flaum…
Ein Sommertraum.

Der stolze Pomp war Schall und Schaum,
die rasche Mode Funkenflug,
das Tretradtreten war Betrug!
Ich sitze unter einem Baum,
man glaubt es kaum.

Das Bildgewebe war ein Zaun,
ein Katzengold der ganze Schatz,
ein Karussell die ganze Hatz –
Die Ruhe schafft dem Atem Raum:
Frag’ nur den Baum.

Christina Egan © 2020

For English poems from the Covid-19 lockdown,
see Notnormal and the parallel texts Hidden Rivers /
Verborgne Flüsse.

For those who were not ill with the terrible virus, 
the key experience may have been, paradoxically:
I can breathe… For once, there was time to breathe —
and air to breathe!

Blue Cloud

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Blue Cloud

Framed by the rubber
of the rolling windows,
the shifting squares
of terraced houses,

the sliding panels
of allotment fences
it appears
again:

a bolt of blue,
the sky in a cloud,
an armful of May –
my cyanothus!

And masked and
unfolding again
and past and
afloat in my eyes…

Christina Egan © 2008

Little tree with bright-blue blossom, next to pink and blue flowers.A tiny light-blue Cyanothus. The one in the poem was a massive tree with almost indigo flowers. I never cease to marvel at the blue blossom. See also Under the Blue Bloom of the Tree.

Photograph: Christina Egan © 2017.

im angesicht der sonne

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

im angesicht der sonne

im angesicht der sonne
steht aufrecht
und einsam
die erste osterglocke

auferstanden
aus der schweren schwarzen erde
freudestrahlend
daß es endlich lichter werde

winterwendend
düftespendend
sich verschwendend
sonnengleich

Christina Egan © 2019

Für Sr. Petra de Resurgente

Huge liturgical book with very large writing and music, richly illuminatedServices for Easter morning: “Sunday of the Resurrection”. —
Photograph: by ignis [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Purple Dusk (Bankside, London)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Nocturne in Purple and Grey
(Bankside, London)

Hemmed with the sequins of lamps
the silver carpet of the river,
the lilac scarves of the bridges, the buildings.

People are blown about like brown leaves.
A few boats float, dozing,
awaiting brighter days.

The hues of lily and lavender
rise, for a moment, and blend,
with a pale memory of their scents.

Great and grey, the river strides past,
great and grey, the moment slides past,
like a graceful line of wild geese.

Christina Egan © 2005

River scene in dreamy bluish hues: gigantic bridge pillar, man on small boat, city on shore.

 

An early-spring impression in pale lilac and silvery grey. Bankside is the southern shore of the Thames in London.

Many years after I wrote those lines, I noticed the similarity with Turner’s mesmerising Nocturnes and renamed the text!

For a German poem depicting purple dusk see ostseeschlaflied (Darß).

 

Nocturne in Blue and Gold. Oil painting by J. A. M. Whistler, showing Battersea Bridge in London, ca. 1872-1875. Tate Gallery, London.

Dankbar für die kleinen Dinge

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Dankbar für die kleinen Dinge

Dankbar für die kleinen Dinge,
dankbar für die Jahresringe,
für die weißen Schmetterlinge
und den Sonnenblumenstrauch.

Large standing clock with heavy golden ornaments, with huge soap bubble floating across.Dankbar für die kleinen Wunder,
unverhofft und unbesungen,
für die sonnenfrohen Stunden
und die sternenstillen auch.

Dankbar für die kleinen Pausen,
für des Laubes sanftes Bauschen,
für des Meeres hehres Rauschen
und der Symphonien Rausch.

Dankbar für die kleinen Zeichen,
für ein rasches Händereichen,
für ein Lächeln ohnegleichen
und der Blicke echten Tausch.

Christina Egan © 2018

 

Clock on the beach promenade,
Ahlbeck on Usedom. Photograph:
Christina Egan © 2017.

Fürst Schnee und Fürstin Mond

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Fürst Schnee und Fürstin Mond

Fürst Schnee und Fürstin Mond
verwandeln rings das Land
mit sanftem Silberglanz,
wenn König Winter thront
und lenkt mit weißer Hand
den stillen Flockentanz.

Verschwunden ist der Staub,
versilbert ist das Schwarz,
vorweg verklärt die Welt.
Da wundert sich das Aug,
da weitet sich das Herz
bis an das Himmelszelt.

Christina Egan © 2017

Mild Christmas Eve

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Mild Christmas Eve

My heavy gate to heaven
has got a secret crack,
and sometimes sunlike flashes
steal through the sudden gap.

Burning sparkler on black background, looking like a supernova!There are no stars this Christmas
but those in your sweet face,
no snow and sparkling crystals
but those in your embrace.

You are my splendid banquet,
you are the birth of mirth,
you’ll be my earth in heaven –
my heaven here on earth.

Christina Egan © 2004

Photograph by Gabriel Pollard [CC BY-SA 2.5].
Featured picture on Wikimedia Commons. 

Kerzenbekrönt

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Kerzenbekrönt

Senkt sich die Dämmrung an frostigen Tagen
– früher denn jemals, doch zauberhaft blau –
hängt über stolzen gewölbten Mansarden,
hält über giebelgeschmückten Fassaden,
bannt aus dem Geiste das leidige Grau.

Stürzen Gestirne herab in Kaskaden
– feucht ist das Pflaster, doch goldengetönt –
spannen sich Perlen an Faden um Faden
blinkend und bebend von Laden zu Laden
bis an die Kirchtürme, kerzenbekrönt.

Christina Egan © 2016

This poem was inspired by a front page photograph of the superb newspaper Agora  in Fulda, Germany, which I had folded over. Then I noticed that beneath the idyllic historical street lit up for Christmas, an industrial container had been inserted through photo montage: as a makeshift home for a refugee family. I felt I had to write a second poem, which you can find at Farbechte Hoffnung.

The street shown is Friedrichstraße, which gives you quite a good impression of past centuries, despite severe damage during the Second World War and ensuing changes. Fulda is quite good for midwinter holidays because of the Christmas Market, the nativity scenes in the churches, numerous festive events… and the snow in the mountains.

When the Snow Falls

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When the Snow Falls

Tiny fir tree and orange nasturtium covered with thick melting snow.

When the snow falls,
when the snow calls
with its crystal-clear voice,
when the streets hum,
when the streets drum
with their boisterous noise,
when the fog shifts,
when the fog lifts
and the sun gilds the stone –
let your smile grow,
for a while know
you are never alone

Christina Egan © 2019

Photograph: Christina Egan © 2017.

This poem was commissioned for a Christmas card by a university library.
Feel free to write or print it in your cards, as long as acknowledge me as the author somewhere.

Wetterfahne / Weather-Vane

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Wetterfahne

Delicate turret with weather-vane, on elegant curved roof with clockface.Jemand muß die Wolken jagen…
Jemand muß die Bäume fragen:
Seid ihr glücklich? Seid ihr satt?
Jemand muß den Regen ahnen,
eher als die Wetterfahnen,
eher als das Espenblatt.

Jemand muß die Sonne sichten,
Frost und Feuer in den Lüften
und den ungeheuren Sturm.
Jemand muß die Schwalben fragen:
Wird die Erde uns noch tragen?
Wetterfahne auf dem Turm!

Christina Egan © 2018

Weather-Vane

Turret painted in pink, with bright-blue clockface and golden weather-vane, under a blue sky.The weather-vane is turning,
the sinking sun is burning
and burnishing its gold.
The slender birch is swaying,
its golden veil is fraying…
The year is getting old.

The weather-vane is creaking,
the cold and damp are seeping
into the window-frames.
The golden flag is flashing,
the elements are splashing
their vigour into space!

Christina Egan © 2018

These two poems about weather-vanes were written on the same November day, but are not versions of the same text.

The first one alludes to a sensitive and at the same time sensible person, who keenly feels changes in weather and climate  — and asks how long we shall be able to live on this earth.

The second one describes sunset and autumn as images of ageing — and at the same time celebrating life!

Gut Hasselburg, Holstein, Germany; Bruce Castle, Tottenham, England. Photographs: Christina Egan © 2014/© 2017.