Arne Herlv Petersen

Stanzas

Arne Herlv Petersen

Stanzas

Burning
There are men who simply are, and men who happen Men of wood and stone, and men who seem like flames And a man of solid wood Surely never understood Anyone who at his own destruction aims.

Men of wood and men of stone came where I'm dwelling And they gravely looked at me and said, "Remember, If you will preserve your frame From your present life abstain, Or your fire soon shall be a dying ember".

And I smiled and said, "My veins are all on fire, Soon the flames are breaking through my fragile skin, But the flames are clear and bright So sit down with me tonight, Warm your fingers over me, my friends and kin.

And I realize, the flames won't burn forever They shall die before your wooden frames decay, But I never shall regret That so little time I get, For the heat and light is so intense today."

Abortive Attempts to Console Myself with Death

Another day is blowing through my nostrils. This day shall die upon the stake. A gleaming bucnh of hours; so much the nearer The morning I do not awake.

The preachers tell me though my flesh is mortal I am endowed with an immortal soul. I know I have a brain. Amino acids Decide what it shall think and set its goal.

And which of all my souls should be immortal? Complacent me, when I am full and drunk? Or lean and hungry me, when girls are lacking? Or wildeyed, desperate me, in trouble sunk?

So fickle is my soul, now I'm alive That it's absurd to think it could survive.

Some Hindus tell me to deny my body And concentrate upon the inner light. But in my body lies my only wisdom., Thoughts may be barren. Flesh is often right.

They tell me that my atoms are eternal Some part of me shall live forevermore. As worm or plant my body resurrected, My brain turned sandgrains on some unknown shore.

But does the lily or the pebble know That there is beauty in the falling snow?

"Just plant a tree or educate a son, Or write a book. Your deeds survive your death." But will the roots of any oak-tree run Like shivers on my skin? Will fame bring breath?

"Be satisfied to be the single leaf That falls in autumn on an endless lea. The tree grows on." Well, if I were that leaf I'd fell the tree did part and fall from me.

You say that our love shall last forever, Like seas and mountains and the starry orbs. I smile, but sadly. Our love is mortal. For who, if not perverse, would kiss a corpse?

Still watching me lies like a snake The morning I do not awake.

Sequel to the Previous Poem

I love your eyes. But they, like mine, shall burst. The things you do. But some day all is done. There shall be no more love to quench my thirst. Nothing can help us more, when we are gone.

With our bodies our love shall die And rotting in a narrow coffin lie.

All this we know, as our eyes betray. We are alive. So we shall turn to dust. Nothing can last. Plants grow but to decay. As men and beasts have died, so die we must.

Time dripping through our hands. We seek to hold It still, this very moment to enjoy. But it is lost, and our blood turns cold. We're chained to life that wants but to destroy.

But as the atom is a world itself And as the glass reflects the greatest star Our dewdroplife becomes eternal now. In fleeing seconds timeless eons are.

When in the stream of life we both shall sail

Then our love shall be our only boat. We shall not sink in any timebound gale But moving onwards, we shall sail and float.

When we are Time ourselves, Time cannot bite. We dance in fire, fly a timeborne kite.

Or I escape from time when in your eyes I see reflections timeless as the sea. My soul melts into yours, in silence dies. My mind serene and still like stone or tree.

For time shall cease to be when we embrace And stars shall stop their course in frozen space.

Persian

Days, breathing softly in the leaves Or slain with moon-scythe "by the night. Rose-petals float on the sea that heaves. Oak-leaves, by darkness woven tight,

This is the landscape where I see you walk Here flutists play, and wine from cups is drunk Edenique; Rest, sweet songs, and measured talk Equaling the Atlantic realm that sunk.

In shade beneath that pondering sycamore Let's pour the rice wine in the fragile cups. Ogival arch of tree through which the shore Vanishing from the sight to mind now dropp.

Evening; And madrigals from time of yore Yashmaks alike do veil thy eyes with thought. Orion shines. The grass with age grows hoar. Under this tree, near thee, my pains are nought.

Distance
I dreamt I saw your thoughtful hazel eyes And felt the gleaming carmine of your mouth Anon on dewy wings my longing flies A bird of darkness hurled towards the South

Pastorale
when chloe did meet young phaon and zadig amaryllis when out from clouds and billows appeared eternal phyllis when dawn was armed and ruby-clad and night as jaspis green when orchards spread their perfume and brooks did chuckling run I walked around in solitude awaiting for the sun.

Shiva
Dravidic temples hovering over plains Of withered grass, beneath a fiery sky, Resisting Time's assault, the stony manes Of idol horses that with pride defy Torrential hurricanes end lashing rains. Here pilgrims dressed in tunics pass me by, Each bent upon his quest to find repose And strenght from knowing Shiva to be close.

In dancing posture on the tortoise stands Lordly, unfathomable he that will On doomsday once again extend his hands, .Veiling the suns so that the heavens chill, Erase the seas and all the sprawling lands, Yet from the chaos shape a new world still. Onward the wheel shall roll, the way goes on, Upon the daisies ever shines the sun.

I see you darkly

I see you darkly, through a glass opaque, Your xanthous hair, your chestnut eyes, your lips. I see you faintly through my hazy ache, Your roseate breasts, your downy sex, your hips.

An agenbite of inwit, viper's sting Has made me turn to a reclusive part, For stunned and cut is now the eagles wing, A dull and heavy weight my useless heart.

I see you darkly as behind a shroud. I was a traitor to the cause of love. The hopes I had, have vanished in a cloud, And through my treason darkness reigns above.

Rites

Through ancient Panic rites I now desire To quell the partial, let the whole imbue My frame and set my languid soul afire To melt into the world, melt into you.

Joyous Sonnet
My living toes are spreading like a fan I feel the grass, the sun-baked soil, the stones My hair is bleached by sun, my skin is tan, And in the yellowed weeds a cricket moans.

I like to feel my the sun upon my skin I like the winter's nights when fragrant wine And ancient Chinese poems form a thin And fragile dwelling-place I may call mine.

I like the music to descend on me Transporting me to strange and beautous lands I like to talk to friends. I like to see, To smell, to hear, I like to move my hands.

I like the company of friend and kin, But most of all to touch your living skin.

Contemplative Sonnet
The narrow boat on placid waters floats The willows bending, lost in unknown dreams A lonely heron midst the reeds that coats His head with silver wings. The dusk that seems

To fall upon my heart and linger on That calms my mind and veils my eyes with thoughts Into the waters sinks the setting sun My boat among the stalling reeds gets caught

The wind is blowing through my very frame The reeds are growing softly through my eyes The heron and my brain are both the same My heart dispersing crowds of dragonflies.

In waters sinking, see, the setting sun The reeds, the brook and I and you are one.

Estival Sonnet

Like parchment wings the leaves shall rattle - dry. The dusty mountains wither and decay. No cloud in sight. A blazing summer's sky Makes me forget the palegreen hopes of May.

The land is conquered by the insects' hosts. Their feet arre dry and tickle through the leaves. The land's a sea of dust. I see no coasts. An insect sea of death; no wave that heaves.

No sign of hopes. The heat repeats itself. The fierce and blazing sun exhausts my mind. My thoughts like dying sand on chalkwhite shelf. Sun dazed my eyes. I seek, but cannot find.

My mind can but an endless tune repeat Of you, despair, of insects' steps and heat.

Autumnal Sonnet
The air of autumn's cool delightful taste The sky transparent green, a silver moon. This sky shall turn a livid grey and waste The torrid red of leaves will fade ere soon.

Upon this summer, now a fleeing dream, Your tranquil gaze, your eyes a velvet hue. The boat a fragile shell, the placid stream, The moments when we shaped the world anew.

Our bodies interweaving in embrace Your shadow moves along the sunny shore Of rivers, edgd with the birchs lace. Our passion growing on forevermore.

A moment only, and the rat is bid To know you better than I ever did.

Nocturnal Sonnet
Egyptian cats, their eyes an azure blue, Their soft and silken flanks in trembling life: Such clouds tonight, the lake a silver hue. The moon with barren scars of ancient strife.

How dare I walk in this crystallic night? How dare I be awake when others sleep? A shriek of falling glass is weaving tight. The night will crush beneath my heavy feet.

And reptile-rigid, dark and eyelash-like The bats slide down the frozen cheek of night. I watch the pregnant tide set off to strike. Provocative, I nothingness invite.

Alone with foreign mights; time comes to pass. I am enclosed within a globe of glass

Political Sonnet
Thalassocratic Britain to watch The air explored and soon turned navigable The might, her prey, evade her royal clutch The splendid dishes snapped from off the table.

The ruler of the waves, but not the air Did angry see her splendid isolation Turn weak and wither, and she was aware That borne by air came foul contamination.

Nowhere to hide. In any coming war The guided missiles'll find your every city You have to act, cannot draw back to shore Cannot sit still with hearts full scorn and pity

We must make end to war. The human race Has to turn outwards to the endless space.

Historical Sonnet
The pterodactyls sound their clarion beeks And rotting leaves decay in dismal swamps Along an asphalt-lake a tiger seeks Some easy prey; And in the tar is locked.

That same lake saw acute medieval strife Crusaders torturing their fellow men A giaour got stuck in tar and lost his life His fading shrieks from out that gloomy den.

Now progress; A Utopia made on Earth The human brain has conquered all the world And brains to bombs, destruction given birth In tar-black shelters embryo-like we curled.

We have the choice: the asphalt lake or life The tool to build; the suicidal knife.

Theological Sonnet
I fear to walk in these nocturnal streets That any moment may dissolve in smoke. The solid stone may turn to spongy peats, And any time the sun may burn to coke.

And blindly groping through my blood decay, Maggots inherent in my funguous brain. Deceived by none to follow narrow ways I see deciduous days by nightfall slain.

From all the plants and beasts is growing death, Therefore I beg you let me stay with you, Feed on your lips and live but in your breath. Let us exhaust the hours, we have so few.

For this I tell you, this, indeed, I know, From nothingness to nothingness we go.

Salamandrine Sonnet

This torrid loathsome stench of burning weeds That filled my nostrils with a stifling smoke Called to my mind a host of ancient deeds And dormant memories to me awoke.

What do these vague sensations signify? What runic message hidden in a haze? This burning peacock's frightened jetblack eye. My love, what set this sea of grass ablaze?

From opened heavens fearful silence falls. The birds drop down to earth with burning wings. My consciousness in fleeing sand dunes stalls. My spine a viper that my being stings.

My brain dissolves itself in charcoal flakes And leaves behind a nest of tangled snakes.

The day you left

The birds have stopped their flight in frozen air. The night usurped the light of waning day The fox lies hidden in its snowy lair Eternal winter, ne'er will it be May.

So is the dismal landscape where I walk Confined in nightmares under iron skies. Hope turned away and I can no more talk. Metallic silence on the lakeside lies.

Erased my mind. I live, yet live no more. Destroyed my plans. Horizons passed from sight. Eternal is alone the wintry shore. Spring never comes. There will be no more light

Time is no more, so time can never heal. The day you left saw time itself congeal.

Flowers of drought

Dandelions glowing in the arid field Of solitude that men have called my brain Recalling thoughts of days when one could wield Opulent harvest when the year did wane.

This year has seen a drought upon the land Hesperian winds have blown across the lake Eclipting sun and moon with gales of sand And solemnly the wood prepared its wake.

Itinerant and restless wolves have crossed Lands where no fearful beast was ever seen Over the fields, where wind the cornstalks tossed Vagrants were elks end boars of grumly mien.

Estival heat upon my drought-struck mind Yet flowers still do grow and give me hope Of spring to come when rain the fields shall find Unchaining dormant growth upon the slope.

The Day After

Sorrow that nothing lasts? It is not that That makes me mute when in the midst of speech That turnes my eyes to stone like when a cat Stops purring, looking to some unseen beach.

I loved her more than anything I know I loved in vain. Still, what I now do mourn Is not the melting of some house of snow, Is not that something holy has been torn.

I never saw this love as one that was I never longed to be, but to become. My love is not a precious stone, but does More seem like fire, like a brook that from

Some unknown mountain springs, and never stops Nor ever turns around to brood and look. I wished my skin be punctured and my blood To curl in spirals in the mountain brook.

That now the brook has stopped, is what I dread. When something moves no longer, it is dead.

You

I see a butterfly Flutter by

Books by Arne Herlv Petersen

Digte. (Borgen 1962) , 9788771437799 Morgensol og glasskr. Roman (Gyldendal 1963) 9788771434682 Ting. Digte (Eget forlag 1965) 9788771437232 Forr i San Francisco. Roman (Thaning & Appel 1966. Norsk 1969) 9788771432725 C. Noveller (Biilmann & Eriksen 1966) ISBN 9788771431421 Stynede gopler. Roman (Biilmann & Eriksen 1966) 9788771434576 Emil Wiinblad og Social-Demokraten 1881-1911. (Historiespeciale 1971) Rugbrd til Himalaya. Roman (Thaning & Appel 1972. 2. udgave 1985. Lydbog 1994)
8741380347. 8788483053, 9788771432121

Lysets hastighed - min styrke. Roman (Thaning & Appel 1973. Lydbog Det danske Lydbogsforlag 1994) 8741331273, 9788771434583 Tegn. Digte (Thaning & Appel 1973) 8741331281, 9788771433487 Imod fremtids fjerne ml. Roman (Gyldendal 1975. 2. udgave Fremad 1992. Lydbog Bibliotekscentralen. Norsk 1978) 8700924911, 8755717152 Gylden oktober. Rejsebog (Attika 1977. Lydbog STB) 8787597233, 9788771431148 Fredsrejsen. Roman (Aschehoug 1983. Lydbog STB) 8711028645, 9788771437157 Spionsigtet. Beretning (Klokkedybet 1983) 8788478009 Vers (CDR 1984) 8788483037, 9788771438635 Stenen og Jorden. Roman (CDR 1984. Lydbog Det danske Lydbogsforlag 1994)
8788483029, 9788771431384

Edward Lears Grumbuliske Digte. Gendigtninger (Alma, 1986) 8772430451 Ord. Digte (Eget forlag 1987) 8798271318 Blussende vger. Roman (Fremad 1991. Lydbog Dansk Biblioteks Center 1991)
8755716415

Dyr og andre mennesker. Brnerim (Malling 1991) 8773335045 Hbet er grnt. Noveller (Klim 1991. Lydbog STB 1994) 8777242106, 9788771430790 James Joyce: Digte og epifanier. Gendigtninger (Brndum 1991) 8773851914 Med ben pande. Roman (CDR 1992. Lydbog Den grimme lling 1993) 8788483665,
9788771433579

Grnne bjerge. Kinesiske kortdigte. Gendigtninger (Husets forlag 1993) 8774833006 Duens tnder. Roman (Hovedland 1993) 8777391624, 9788771431322 Korn p stengrund. Tekster (Politisk Revy 1993) 8773781096, 9788771433241 Guldgrisen. Roman (Rosinante 1994. Lydbog Den grimme lling 1995) 8716140311,
9788771433500

Himlen under jorden. Roman (Fremad 1994. Lydbog Danmarks Blindebibliotek 1995)
8755718892

Helgardering. Roman (Centrum 1994. Lydbog Domino 1994) 8758308512, 9788771434897 Se dig i speilet. Kierkegaared-citater (Vendelkr 1996) 8741613546 Cyber Safari. - eventyr p Internettet (IDG 1996) 8778430453 Bibliotek 2005 - fire scenarier (Teknologirdet 1996) 8790221052 Internet Guide. (IDG 1998) 8778431700 De tre aber. Roman (Hovedland 2002. Lydbog DBC medier 2003) I 8777396200.
9788771438611

Tsunami. Roman (Per Kofod 2003) 8790724623, 9788771438185 Fra den forkerte verden. Artikelsamling (Ajour 2004) 8789235762, 9788771437997

Simmer (Hovedland 2005. Lydbog Den grimme lling 2006) 877739822, 9788771434309 J-J Rabearivelo: Nstendrmme. Gendigtigninger (Husets forlag 2005) 8774835424 Kobayashi Issa: Dugdrbeverden. Gendigtninger (Husets forlag 2006) 9788774835745 Fjerne ml 1-3. Roman (Hovedland 2006. Lydbog Den grimme lling 2007)
Bd. 1 9788777398698, 9788771432176 Bd. 2 9788777398711, 9788771432749, Bd. 3 : 9788777398735, 9788771431964 Kort. Digte (Books on Demand 2008) 9788771435214 Epitafium. Digte (Books on Demand 2008), 9788771434415 Skueprocessen (Sohn 2009) 9788791959615, 9788771434064 Blev du bange? Brnebog. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012 9788771430738 Glimt af kolibrier. Rejsebog. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012) 9788771437775 Vandene synger. Rejsebog. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012) 9788771431117 Vazaha. Roman. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012) 9788771435061 Nidkre guder. Roman. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012) 9788771438901 Sfrden til Cipangu. Noveller (E-bog Saxo Publish 2012) 9788771434965 Grnsels 1. Erindringsroman (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788771438413 Grnsels 2. Erindringsroman (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788771432633 Grnsels 3. Erindringsroman (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788771439885 Fr. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740403756 Status 2011. Opdateringer (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740467956 Status 2012. Opdateringer (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740426328 P Nettet. Tekster (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740444711 Genskr. Gendigtninger (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740419634 Sange. (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740419535 Form. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740432978 Stanzas. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740496482 Rids. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740418156 Linjer. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740434446 Rim. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740431247 Flyvende katte. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740486124 Samlede digte. Digte (E-bog Saxo Publish 2013) 9788740432527

Arne Herlv Petersen Stanzas Copyright 2013 Arne Herlv Petersen ISBN 9788740496482