vessels

drachenschwanz

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

drachenschwanz

zehn jahre nach dem
blitzschlag
vorm bildschirm
und der wirklichgewordenen
sonnenwende
im büro mache ich schluß
mit der nichtbeziehung.

die blauen briefe
die taumelnden
niegelesenen
nieabgeschickten
fliegen endlich
in den reißwolf
denn du hast durchweg
ausdrücklich
geschwiegen.

mondenhelle augen
und kein lichtstrahl
fiel auf mich
wellenschlag der stimme
und kein wörtchen
fiel mir zu.

die aufgehäuften gedichte
geschliffen und gleißend
sind alle noch da
berstend von bildern
die sich auffächern
vom ersten goldfisch
bis zum letzten falken.

schweres gebräu
gefiltert
zum salböl
und abgefüllt in die phiolen
von zweimal zwei reimen
oder vierzehn zeilen.

den drachenschwanz
der letzten wortkette
hänge ich in die wolken
für die nachwelt.

Christina Egan ©2024

Black triangular kite with long red tail in turquoise sky.

Thirst (I’m drawn to you by magnets)

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Thirst

I.

I’m drawn to you by magnets,
I’m driven, drained with thirst –
yet later I’ll be grateful
that nothing happened first,

that I have always loved you
because you are yourself,
and not because you know me
or kissed me once in stealth.

II.

It is as if these vessels,
these smooth and sparkling words,
whose hollow space entices,
reflects, rejects and hurts,

got filled with blood-red spirit
of strong reality:
Desire. Joy. Surrender.
Embrace. Eternity.

Christina Egan © 2004

Fewer Things!

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Fewer Things!

We need to churn out fewer words,
we need to burn out fewer lamps,
we need to fashion fewer things,Roman_bowl_01_MusLon
but those, of perfect elegance:

a shallow bowl with turned-out rim,
just like a pale and slender hand;
a silver ring with single stone,
as if the sky and moon descend. 

Christina Egan © 2013

Jar, elegantly curved, with brown and blue glaze.

 

Roman bowl. Photograph from the
website of the Museum of London.

See also my musings on the little
Mesopotamian jar, Glazed Clay.

Assyrian jar, glazed pottery. Photograph:
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Glazed Clay

~ Christina Egan ~ Leave a comment

Jar, elegantly curved, with brown and blue glaze.Glazed Clay

Two mighty rivers’ ceaseless flow
beneath a high and cloudless sky;
to either side the ochre glow
of arid countries rolling by;

and here and there a golden maze,
the buildings’ cubes, the cities’ grid:
this jar with blue and brownish glaze
from Babylon still mirrors it.

Christina Egan © 2016

Mesopotamian jar (9th to 7th c. BC) . Photograph: © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The city and country of ‘Babylon’ were under Assyrian rule at the time the little jar was made, but I just used the name as the most familiar for all the civilisations of Mesopotamia.

For a German poem about Babylon with the Euphrates and the Hanging Gardens, see Die Hängenden Gärten.

The perfect elegance of this tiny everyday object is an example for the simple beauty I call for in Fewer Things, where you can also see a red Roman bowl.