Tu lhes dirás, meu amor, que nós não existimos.

Que nascemos da noite, das árvores, das nuvens.

Que viemos, amámos, pecámos e partimos

Como a água das chuvas.

Tu lhes dirás, meu amor, que ambos nos sorrimos

Do que dizem e pensam

E que a nossa aventura,

É no vento que passa que a ouvimos,

É no nosso silêncio que perdura.

Tu lhes dirás, meu amor, que nós não falaremos

E que enterrámos vivo o fogo que nos queima.

Tu lhes dirás, meu amor, se for preciso,

Que nos espreguiçaremos na fogueira.

José Carlos Ary dos Santos

    Edtaonisl 1913
    Francis Picabia




Salad Spinner


after Francis Picabia


You must grab time by the hair,
couple subconscious helixes
in the space of a secret.


You must tickle the improbable
and believe in the impossibility
of crossroads.


You must learn to suspend
ten grams of white, five grams of black
in hopes of true scarlet.


You must know how to fall from below
to favor the zenith
of mornings to the manner born.


You must love the four mouths
floating around the silky doubt
of dead assumptions.


Bill Berkson

Many years of life on Earth, all yours now —
Open the door, down the street, the chute, in a quick black van, accelerator
Spun under stars, sensations and the several ways they lead existence on
Eventful estuaries, gaps and swells, rooftops, rose gardens, reefs and ledges
Sites the soul well knows, needs must know more of — in ways of intimacy, say


Baffling to live, knowing more or less in time, as wild waves wipe out panic
Echoing rages form a part, to evade the darkness may be more extreme
Resolute, melodious, the stars sing out where the song insists on going
Knowing you listen, add a verse or two, to return to them the song that’s you:
Sagacious, edgy, soulful, so impressed! (And that is you: part song, part simple fact)
On your way, in love’s regard, human depth and dizzying grandeur you attain
No moment dearer than this, to cheer you living with all you know, with friends

Bill Berkson

    Conversation I , 1922
    Francis Picabia

One must go through life, be it red or blue, stark naked and accompanied by the music of a subtle fisherman, prepared at all times for a celebration.

Francis Picabia

Barefoot

We took off our shoes

In the middle of the hot city.

And we looked so loose,

Like newborn and pretty.

With the same speed, if we could

Free our thoughts for a while

From their heavy boots —

It would be easier, mile after mile,

To leap barefoot into childhood.

 

Abraham Sutzkever

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life.
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous.
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Charles Bukowski