Time Was Away and Somewhere Else

I was pretty feverish today, so I ended up leaving work early and sleeping fitfully in the afternoon heat. But I have 2 more photos of my trip to Japan (the trip that never made it to the blog) here, and a poem I read that I really liked. I don't have any further clarity on my current woes, but the good news is that sitting up and striving to explain myself - in that wonderful, lacerating way - really served to suck me dry of any residual energy. It seems easier to cope with the shambles when you're incapable of thinking or feeling too deeply.



Shocked by the leek situation at Daimoru.



Ahem. In the company of Messieurs Spice and Lloyd.

And now, as is the title of the book, an homage to eros. There isn't anything terribly profound about this poem, but the sentiment is simple and liltingly composed. I like the lines "They planned to portion out the stars and dates" -- it just seems such a foolish but romantic idea. I love the notion of portioning out the stars, as if we could even begin to claim proprietorship of the firmament.

Meeting point

Time was away and somewhere else,
There were two glasses and two chairs
And two people with the one pulse
(Somebody stopped the moving stairs)
Time was away and somewhere else.

And they were neither up nor down;
The stream's music did not stop
Flowing through heather, limpid brown,
Although they sat in a coffee shop
And they were neither up nor down.

The bell was silent in the air
Holding its inverted poise -
Between the clang and clang a flower,
A brazen calyx of no noise:
The bell was silent in the air.

The camels crossed the miles of sand
That stretched around the cups and plates;
The desert was their own, they planned
To portion out the stars and dates:
The camels crossed the miles of sand.

Time was away and somewhere else.
The waiter did not come, the clock
Forgot them and the radio waltz
Came out like water from a rock:
Time was away and somewhere else.

Her fingers flicked away the ash
That bloomed again in tropic trees:
Not caring if the markets crash
When they had forests such as these,
Her fingers flicked away the ash.

God or whatever means the Good
Be praised that time can stop like this,
That what the heart has understood
Can verify in the body's peace
God or whatever means the Good.

Time was away and she was here
And life no longer what it was,
The bell was silent in the air
And all the room one glow because
Time was away and she was here.