The Heavenly City
By Stevie Smith
I sigh for the heavenly country,
Where the heavenly people pass,
And the sea is as quiet as a mirror
Of beautiful beautiful glass.
I walk in the heavenly field,
With lilies and poppies bright,
I am dressed in a heavenly coat
Of polished white.
When I walk in the heavenly parkland
My feet on the pasture are bare,
Tall waves the grass, but no harmful
Creature is there.
At night I fly over the housetops,
And stand on the bright moony beams;
Gold are all heaven’s rivers,
And silver her streams.
from Stevie Smith Collected Poems 1983
ARCHAIC FRAGMENT
I was trying to love matter.
I taped a sign over the mirror:
You cannot hate matter and love form.
It was a beautiful day, though cold.
This was, for me, an extravagantly emotional gesture.
.......your poem:
tried, but could not.
I taped a sign over the first sign:
Cry, weep, thrash yourself, rend your garments—
List of things to love:
dirt, food, shells, human hair.
....... said
tasteless excess. Then I
rent the signs.
AIAIAIAI cried
the naked mirror.
From the diary of Frida Kahlo: an intimate self-portrait... she writes out the symbolic association of a colour with the respective pencil onto the notebook page. "I’ll try out the pencilssharpened to the point of infinitywhich always sees ahead: Green — good warm light Magenta — Aztec. old TLAPALI blood of prickly pear, the brightest and oldest [Brown —] color of mole, of leaves becoming earth [Yellow —] madness sickness fear part of the sun and of happiness [Blue —] electricity and purity love [Black —] nothing is black — really nothing [Olive —] leaves, sadness, science, the whole of Germany is this color [Yellow —] more madness and mystery all the ghosts wear clothes of this color, or at least their underclothes [Dark blue —] color...
Lisoire adores Persian poet and seer, Hafiz, from the 14th Century.
YOUR SCENT I KNOW
The ferry to any shore, to any land, to
any realm, it is the wine cup, the heart.
An unseen vessel it is though to most,
love, but so capable of travel, via a prayer
or a soul's deep wish.
And your spirit's arms, they can reach
out and really touch anything you want
to hold.
It should be that way, and it is. For you,
dear, all within time, are right before me.
Your scent I know; your ways I shape.
