poems

Farbe ist Leben / [Colour, Life, Silence]

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment
Shimmering, milky, rosy piece of rock, resembling the sea at sunset.

Farbe ist Leben

Farbe ist Leben,
Stille ist Frieden:
So hab’ ich’s, scheint’s,
erlebt und erschrieben.

Leben ist Farbe,
Stille Musik…
Bunt und bescheiden
blüht mein Geschick.

Wort ist Begegnung,
Sprache Musik…
Zwischen den Zeilen
schimmert das Glück.

Christina Egan ©2024

Inspired by the word cloud Colour, Life, Silence of the 25 English poems I have written over the past months (generated and designed thanks to the Simple Word Cloud Generator).
The word cloud created from this poem, in turn, brought up the corresponding German words, with a number of other words expressing the central term “poem”.
“Erschrieben” is a word I made up for bringing about something by writing, while the regular word “erleben” means experiencing and is passive… or perhaps not!

Photograph of rose quartz: by Ra’ike (Own work)
(GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

zugefallen

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

zugefallen

eine kristallkugel
schwebte überm wald
und berührte die wipfel
als ich dir zufiel
unsere namen
hingen in den sternen
überkreuz
es gibt keinen zufall

tausend bücher
hab ich an meiner wand
die schieb ich beiseite
wie einen vorhang
tausend gedichte
hab ich in meiner kiste
da steig ich hinüber
die brauchen wir nicht

denn ich schreibe dir  
ein neues gedicht
eine neue sprache
ein neues schweigen
denn du schenkst mir
ein neues lächeln
ein neues leuchten
eine neue leichtigkeit

Christina Egan ©2021

Playing with the words
“Zufall” (conincidence)
and “zugefallen” (destined).
Is love written in the stars?

See my poem Zugewogen
about longing for love,
happiness, and destiny,
or rather, providence.

A New Poem is Being Born

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment


A New Poem is Being Born

There is an empty space on greyish paper:
to fill with fire from a rocky scar
and with fresh ashes on a ghostly glacier,
to fix a brilliant moon and matching star.

Christina Egan ©2024

Ein neues Gedicht wird geboren

Die graue Leere des Papiers erfüllt
das Feuer, das aus Felsennarbe quilt,
der Aschenfall auf geisterhaftem Firn,
der Mond mit funkelndem Begleitgestirn.

Christina Egan ©2024

Purple Wine

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Purple Wine

I.

Deep purple and pure is this wine,
the midsummer’s fire condensed,
expanding inside me, immense:
your kiss – you are finally mine.

Large flat flower in white and purple, with long purple stem, small orange fruit, shiny green leaves.

II.

There’s twenty-one words on the paper,
of wine and a night I forgot:
yet flowers and fruits bore my plot,
your kiss sparkles many years later…

Christina Egan © 2005 (I) / 2020 (II)

Photograph: Christina Egan © 2016.

In Starless Night

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

In sternloser Nacht

In sternloser Nacht
ein Silberfleck auf dem Moos:
verirrtes Fröschlein…
In den Garten, ins Gedicht
und hinaus hüpfen Frösche!

Muddy pond with tadpole amongst aquatic plants.

In the starless night
a silver speck on the moss:
a little lost frog…
In and out of my garden,
of my poems, those frogs hop!

Christina Egan © 2017

Muddy pond with waterlilies amongst greenery.

For another tanka about frogs in honour of Basho, see Waiting for the Frog.

Frog pond. Note the tiny tadpole! Photographs: Christina Egan © 2014.

Window Seat

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Window Seat

You beat me to the window seat,
Silhouette of man against tall window with curtains.the secret poets’ nest;
you watched the broad and busy street,
a highway on your quest.

You beat me to the poets’ prize,
without a rhyme or form:
you saw the faces floating by
in the approaching storm,

you caught the litter and the leaves,
the puddles and the birds
and strung them as bizarre bright beads
on your vibrating verse.

Christina Egan © 2019

The poem has its origin in a coffee bar in a busy high street in London. It was published in the Tottenham Community Press (print issue of December 2018).

The elusive poet in a window seat. Photograph: Christina Egan © 2017.