My next step

[Dany Hilven]

Battle

We are going back, returning to our graves
We’ll be praying there, I guess, rethinking ourselves

I need you to stroke my soul with your breath
To move me gently to the farther corner of this night
I need you to take my mind in your eyes
To swiftly lift me from the pain deep inside

Let us ignore the women with their shield-masked faces
Let us comply with the rule of their worn-out traces

I need you to see me as a knight in dented armour
To bind me on this old, dying horse still heading for battle
I need you to gently iron the folds in my soul
To picture me in legends, to free me from this cattle

They are greeting us now, nodding in awe
They draw the lines between us and their withdraw

I need you to stay with me in this panic
To firmly hold your bare hands on my head
I need you to judge them now, make them kneel
To condemn and forgive them gracefully unsaid

Who is judging us now, counting our sins
Who, I ask you, is tuning these violins



Dany Hilven

[Dany Hilven]

Fulfilled

In crippled churches
Bending under their towers
We watch the lifeless bodies wash ashore

There is no deeper pain
Than grace seeping into wisdom

No more hypocritical pity
Spreading like some disease
Eating itself into ones soul
A parasite feeding on mercy
Before the axe falls

Into the smallest veins it spreads

I prefer watching a distant star
In some hazy unnamed galaxy

Lying next to you
Resting my hand on your thigh
Feeling you breathe on my cheek

I prefer kneeling at some cross
With the convict still hanging
Looking down on me
Smiling with every scar in his flesh

Knowing he's over it
Knowing it has been fulfilled




Dany Hilven

[mat james]

I'll say a prayer for the cowboy, Dany:


Be still,
and know that I AM......

[grace]

this is absolutely beautiful.Who is the cowboy or shouldn't I ask?

[Dany Hilven]

[lizzytysh]

Lying next to you
Resting my hand on your thigh
Feeling you breathe on my cheek

Very effective, Dany... particularly the last line and, still, all three together


~ Lizzy

[grace]

Hello danny. "the cowboy" reminds me of jim morrison. Is jim morrison the cowboy? If not, what does the image say to you. Inquisitively, grace.

[grace]

"I need you to gently iron the folds in my soul, . . . to stay with me in this panic, . . . to judge them now, make them kneel".

I need you to know this is one masterful poem.

kudos and many thanks, grace.

[margaret]

grace,

Who is the cowboy or shouldn't I ask?

Do you have Leonard's album titled Recent Songs? One song is titled Ballad of the Absent Mare and contains the line beginning "Say a prayer for the cowboy......"

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardc ... tmare.html

[Dany Hilven]

Yes, Grace, Margaret is absolutely right: the line comes from the song "Balled of the Absent Mare" - one of my favourites, though not one that is often quoted.
Then, my subject line "A poor and lonesome one..." refers to the tune that the comic figure "Lucky Luke" (Belgian by the way) always sings, riding into the sunset after one of his adventures. Don't know if you've ever seen this comic strip, but it's great fun (has the hilarious "Daltons" in it as well...)!

And thank you very much for your appreciation, Grace - I'm glad you liked some of my work.
Please also forgive me if I made some linguistic mistakes - English is not my mother tongue, but I'm trying hard to make it work anyway (I seem to be able to "translate" images better into English than into Dutch).

Be careful, though, you might have encouraged me to put some more on this forum (which is a great opportunity, thanks to Jarkko!)...

Thanks Folks, for taking some time for me.
Love - Dany

[Dany Hilven]

translation


had we already translated each other’s words?

had we together filled the glass with wine again,
affably neglected the gestures of our guests,
adjusted our glances to each other?

I do not remember.
it was not yet a routine then…

and now we leave all doors wide open,
we never ask again who is there.

we do not have to translate anymore,
wine we drink from only one glass,
each other’s moves we monitor,
our glances no longer search.

please, fill the glass once more,
there are feet shuffling at the door again.



Dany

[lizzytysh]

Oooooh... am I reading your last two lines correctly, suggesting that this relationship may be weakening?

Very evocative, Dany. The feet shuffling at the door hearkens to Leonard's poem about there being feet on the stairs and a voice such that women just give themselves to the man ascending.


~ Lizzy

[Dany Hilven]

Hello Lizzy,
Interesting you mention the relationship might be weakening...
On the contrary: in this case, there has been consolidation - no translation necessary anymore, the bond is solidly fixed, anybody is allowed in... there's no danger of interference that might disturb it.
I wrote it already some time ago.
Your reference to LC's poem is heartwarming, but I know my place...
Love - Dany

[lizzytysh]

I'm glad to hear I was wrong, Dany. Your coming together was so beautiful and progressed through the phases of relationship so smoothly. I just couldn't be sure on the significance of your final lines... were they a confirmation of all that preceded or a request for a shoring up of all that had gone before.

~ Yes, well, even inadvertent similarities are to be appreciated .

I really enjoyed your poem .


~ Lizzy

[Dany Hilven]

Forget me


layer upon layer
I deepen myself

I dig myself in
and then out again

I take a walk
and return

over and over
drown myself

swim forth
and back
again

and if I should meet you
somewhere in a moment

know then
that I’m your master
and I obey you

when I teasingly slowly
lean against you

remember then
that I’m faster than light
lighter than myself

I dig myself in
and then out again

deepen myself
layer upon layer

forget me
as soon as I
reach you





Dany