Thursday, April 9, 2015

Shake


YOU ASKED ME THAT I WRITE TO YOU
IN VERSES ELEGANT AND TRUE.
NOW SHAKESPEARE, WHOM I DID CONSULT,
PUT DOWN HIS PEN AND SHOOK HIS HEAD:
“NO! NO! YOU MUST NOT SPEAK TO ME..
WHEN YOU SEEK WORDS TO SPEAK YOURSELF.
YOU LOVE? YOU CARE? YOU CHERISH ALL
YOU SEE AND HEAR AND SENSE …NOW SPEAK;
YOUR WORDS WILL THUNDER, HEARD BY NONE
BUT BY THE ONES YOU LOVE.” THEN SHAKESPEARE
JUST TURNED, BENT DOWN AND GAZED AT WORDS
THAT HE HAD WRITTEN. CROUCHING BELOW
THERE WERE NO WORDS FOR ME TO SEE.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Career


22/12/2013

Career

 

I am a poet unrenowned,

 Unpublished and unsung.

I’ve scribbled verses as a boy,

And as nonagenarian.

 

The question is; If I am not     

A poet, writer or the like,

What am I then? I’d better think

Of all the roads on which I hiked..

 

A chorus of well-meaning friends

Were resonant I should attend

A university abroad

With glittering titles at the end.

 

To study law in Switzerland?

To practise law? This was too much!

This thought was squashed at birth and yet

I think I could impress a judge.

 

Well then, this very clever boy

Should study languages, become

A highly skilled interpreter …

Rejected (though it would be fun).

 

Parental counsel and suggestions

Began to highlight engineering

For Jews in Nazi Germany

As the most valuable training.

 

I acquiesced. My father’s contacts

Got me a job as ‘Volunteer’,

To learn the rudiments of turning

And fitting iron, brass, and steel.

 

Kristallnacht spelt the bitter end,

My father was arrested, shipped

To Buchenwald – but did not speak

Of how his dignity was stripped.

 

Some six months later we arrived

In Melbourne, and within a month

I was apprenticed to become

A turner, fitter, and so on.

 

I rose to very moderate heights

While making things in brass and steel,

But on retirement I raced

To where at home I truly feel.

 

I read, I listened, and I wrote

About my thoughts. And now it seems.

I had performed the miracle

Of catching up on youthful dreams.