The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sat 5/6/06)

[RetroLounge]

City That Does Not Sleep

In the sky there is nobody asleep. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is asleep.
The creatures of the moon sniff and prowl about their cabins.
The living iguanas will come and bite the men who do not dream,
and the man who rushes out with his spirit broken will meet on the
street corner
the unbelievable alligator quiet beneath the tender protest of the
stars.

Nobody is asleep on earth. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is asleep.
In a graveyard far off there is a corpse
who has moaned for three years
because of a dry countryside on his knee;
and that boy they buried this morning cried so much
it was necessary to call out the dogs to keep him quiet.

Life is not a dream. Careful! Careful! Careful!
We fall down the stairs in order to eat the moist earth
or we climb to the knife edge of the snow with the voices of the dead
dahlias.
But forgetfulness does not exist, dreams do not exist;
flesh exists. Kisses tie our mouths
in a thicket of new veins,
and whoever his pain pains will feel that pain forever
and whoever is afraid of death will carry it on his shoulders.

One day
the horses will live in the saloons
and the enraged ants
will throw themselves on the yellow skies that take refuge in the
eyes of cows.

Another day
we will watch the preserved butterflies rise from the dead
and still walking through a country of gray sponges and silent boats
we will watch our ring flash and roses spring from our tongue.
Careful! Be careful! Be careful!
The men who still have marks of the claw and the thunderstorm,
and that boy who cries because he has never heard of the invention
of the bridge,
or that dead man who possesses now only his head and a shoe,
we must carry them to the wall where the iguanas and the snakes
are waiting,
where the bear's teeth are waiting,
where the mummified hand of the boy is waiting,
and the hair of the camel stands on end with a violent blue shudder.

Nobody is sleeping in the sky. Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is sleeping.
If someone does close his eyes,
a whip, boys, a whip!
Let there be a landscape of open eyes
and bitter wounds on fire.
No one is sleeping in this world. No one, no one.
I have said it before.

No one is sleeping.
But if someone grows too much moss on his temples during the
night,
open the stage trapdoors so he can see in the moonlight
the lying goblets, and the poison, and the skull of the theaters.

Federico García Lorca


********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. Yikes that's morbid

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

6. Morbid can be powerful...

RL

[miss_american_pie]

7. It certainly is that

and a little too dense for me today.

[RetroLounge]

8. ...

Kisses tie our mouths
in a thicket of new veins

RL

[miss_american_pie]

9. Well, yes, I got that part

But kissing doesn't belong beside corpse imagery. ;)

[RetroLounge]

10. Okay, I'll grant you that...

Kissing belongs in Wisconsin...

RL

[miss_american_pie]

11. I thought it was coffee that belonged in Wisconsin?

;)

[RetroLounge]

14. Coffee. Cheese. Kisses. You.

RL

[miss_american_pie]

15. and sonnets

:blush:

[RetroLounge]

16. and sonnets

about coffee, cheese, kisses and you.

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear RetroLounge........

I agree with miss_american_pie.....This is morbid!

AND creepy! Hard to understand, too.....

Interesting images, though.....

I guess I like my poetry a little more grounded in the real world. :shrug:

But still, I thank you for your time here......:hug:

[xchrom]

3. mmmm -- lorca.

hi retro!

how are you?

[RetroLounge]

4. I'm okay.

You?

RL

[xchrom]

5. my dad is drivin me NUTS today.

i have learned that it is NOT the caretaker who is driving the bus.

[Callalily]

13. Don't know your situation

but seems like you need a hug. Here's a big one from me!

(The caretaker thing triggered this don't feel like explaining, but I sense I understand where you're coming from. for you)

[xchrom]

17. why thank you, simply.

that was nice.

[Callalily]

12. Sorry RL but you lost

me on this one. My brain sometimes just shuts down to some poetry, this piece apparently being one of them.

That said, have no fear, I will continue to read your selections.

[wildhorses]

18. the horses will live in the saloons

and that day is now...as you see
wildhorses is in the lounge

[RetroLounge]

19. Exactly!

Now you're cooking with gas...

RL