GO LIGHT

Ja us ho havia dit, oi, que demà al vespre llegeix a Barcelona Gary Snyder i que hi passaran el documental The Practice of the Wild? Si us agrada dubtar, a la mateixa hora hi ha un altre acte (a l'Institut del Teatre) amb motiu del centenari de Czeslaw Milosz, de qui acaba d'aparèixer a Galaxia Gutenberg Tierra inalcanzable, àmplia, esplèndida antologia a cura de Xavier Farré.










WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW TO BE A POET

all you can know about animals as persons.
the names of trees and flowers and weeds.
the names of stars and the movements of planets
and the moon.
your own six senses, with a watchful elegant mind.
at least one kind of traditional magic:
divination, astrology, the book of changes, the tarot;

dreams.
the illusory demons and the illusory shining gods.
kiss the ass of the devil and eat sh*t;
fuck his horny barbed cock,
fuck the hag,
and all the celestial angels
and maidens perfum’d and golden-

& then love the human: wives husbands and friends
children’s games, comic books, bubble-gum,
the weirdness of television and advertising.

work long, dry hours of dull work swallowed and accepted
and lived with and finally lovd. exhaustion,
hunger, rest.

the wild freedom of the dance, extasy
silent solitary illumination, entasy

real danger. gambles and the edge of death.


FOR THE CHILDREN

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:
stay together
learn the flowers
go light

  Gary Snyder