.
.
Los laberintos
que crea el tiempo,
se desvanecen.

(Sólo queda
el desierto.)

- Federico Garcia Lorca
.
.
.
El mar
sonríe a lo lejos.
Dientes de espuma,
labios de cielo.

- Federico Garcia Lorca
.
.
.
Io amo perché
il mio corpo
è sempre
in evoluzione.

- Alda Merini
.
.
.
Il paradiso non mi piace
perché verosimilmente non ha ossessioni

- Alda Merini
.
.
.
Gusto il peccato como fosse
il principio del benessere

- Alda Merini
.
.
.
Perché questa lentezza del caos?
Perché il verbo non mi avvicina?
Perché non mangio i frammenti di ieri
como se fosse un futuro d'amore?

- Alda Merini
.
.
.
Io ero un albatro grande
e volteggiavo sui mari.
Qualcuno ha fermato il mio viaggio,
senza nessuna carità di suono.
Ma anche distesa per terra
io canto ora per te
le mie canzoni d'amore.

- Alda Merini
.
.
.
Estoy hablando

   Estoy diciendo amor. Una muchacha
parte un bombón de menta con los dientes
y me da la mitad.

   Estoy diciendo vida. Cien mil hombres
quedan roncos gritando
que no ha sido penalty.

   Estoy diciendo madre. Una mujer,
cantándome una copla de otros tiempos,
me limpa las narices mientras lloro.

   Estoy diciendo patria. Un hombre joven
tiene sangre en las manos entreabiertas
y dice que él no ha sido.

   Estoy diciendo muerte. Alguien corre
por las calles desiertas, media noche, 
en busca de un notario.

   Estoy diciendo fe. Un sacerdote
se descubre y eleva a Dios la vista
mientras pasa un entierro de primera.

   Estoy diciendo Dios. Todas las cosas
me miran en silencio.

- Rafael Guillen
.
.
.
.
.
Love

The thing comes
of itself
             (Look up
to see
             the cat & the squirrel,  
                                                         the one
torn, a red thing,
                                 & the other
somehow immaculate

- Robert Creeley
.
.
.
are there some
invulnerabilities too
hard to bear perhaps
the bulletproof vest
stabs itself in secret

- bill knott
.
.
.
AT THE GYM

This salt-stain spot
marks the place where men
lay down their heads,
back to the bench,

and hoist nothing
that need be lifted
but some burden they've chosen
this time: more reps,

more weight, the upward shove
of it leaving, collectively,
this sign of where we've been:
shroud-stain, negative

flashed onto the vinyl
where we push something
unyielding skyward,
gaining power

at least over flesh,
which goads with desire,
and terrifies with frailty.
Who could say who's

added his heat to the nimbus
of our intent, here where
we made ourselves:
something difficult

lifted, pressed or curled.
Power over beauty,
power over power!
Though there's something more

tender, beneath our vanity,
our will to become objects
of desire: we sweat the mark
of our presence onto the cloth.

Here is some halo
the living made together.

- Mark Doty
.
.
.
The way of love is not
a subtle argument.

The door there
is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.

How do they learn that?
They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.

- Rumi
.
.
.
If you love love,
look for yourself.

- Rumi
.
.
.
Day after day I would climb up to the top floor of the palace and look out over the harbour. Day after day there was no sign. Sometimes there were ships, but never the ship I longed to see.

- Penelope in Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad
.
.
.
pára o mundo
que eu quero descer
fetch the bolt cutters
i've been here too long

.
.
.
But I know if I hate you for hating me
I will have entered the endless race

.
.
.
Paul Klee, Ad Parnassum, 1932
.
.
There is
only one
true thing:

in the self
a weight,
a small
stone.

- Paul Klee
.
.
.
Myself,
for instance: an entire dramatic company.

- Paul Klee
.
.
.
sometimes you just have to shrug;
put the record on repeat.

- uyen hua
.
.
.
Sokrates to His Lover

As I kissed Agathon my soul swelled to my lips,
where it hangs, pitiful, hoping to leap across.

- Plato
.
.
.
I shall love as long as there is breath in me
and care
I say I have been a strong lover

hurt
bitter
and know this

no matter
I shall love

- Sappho
.
.
.
I want to fight you
just as when I am thirsty I want to drink

- Archilochos
.
.
.
Go to the world
Where is it
Go there

- Brenda Hillman
.
.
.
comme au milieu d'un adieu silencieux

.
.
I live you so much
- Kevin Young
.
.
.
EARLY BLUES

Once I ordered a pair of shoes
  But they never came.

- Kevin Young
.
.
.
hell & heal me
- kevin young
.
.
.
Moon has set
and Pleiades: middle
night, the hour goes by,
alone I lie.

- Sappho
.
.
.
I don't know what to do
    two states of mind in me

- Sappho
.
.
.
Can you understand being alone so long
you would go out in the middle of the night
and put a bucket into the well
so you could feel something down there
tug at the other end of the rope?

- Jack Gilbert
.
.
.
.
.
to love despite and still
- robert graves
.
.
.
I once touched love
it had the bitter taste
of black coffee
it quickened
my heartbeat
crazed
my living body
rocked my senses

- Halina Poswiatowska
.
.
I have turned the kettle on to forgetting.

This can't get away from itself to be a thought. It is not
a whistler, it will not whistle when
it's ready.

- Sarah Gridley
.
.
.
I love what I am and hate my love for it.
Is there another way I can create this world?

- Adonis
.
.
.
Why call me man?
That's not my name.
Why bother with identity?
Just say I live
in the closed drum of space.
If you must say something,
say that.

- Adonis
.
.
.
absentminded
our thoughtless days
sat at dire controls
and played indolently

- chinua achebe
.
.

.
.
Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.

Be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.

- Rumi
.
.
.
you want the recipe but can't handle my sound
my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
i can teach you –  
i know you ain't used to a female alpha

.