Patrick Friesen: Crazy Bone Poems

Foto: Astrid Nydahl

Min kanadensiske vän, poeten Patrick Friesen arbetar just nu med en mycket lång svit dikter som också är ett manuskript för en pjäs. Patrick berättar:

"All the poems (104 of them) are about this length, and together they create a whole long poem.  Crazy Bone is a middle-aged woman who is eccentric, seen as Crazy by others, wandering through a rural area of southeastern Manitoba, where I grew up.  The poems are short, with short couplets.  The italicized parts are the woman talking to herself."

Det är alltså så, att de kursiverade avsnitten är kvinnan, Crazy Bone, som talar för sig själv.

Patrick Friesen: Crazy Bone Poems

 

 

 

94

 

 

but I grow wintry

in my thoughts

and love begins

to fade away

and so does me

me me

my stained hands

and mouth

there will be no obituary

in port au spain

nor in montreal

nor in this neck of the woods

 

 

　

95

 

 

I remember and

so I am

the afternoon

I almost drowned

the taste of

sunlit water

which I wouldn’t remember

would I if I’d died

all the lies

and maybes

and there are lies

that hold fire

and cold facts

I don’t recall

she gestures dismissively

with her hand

who isn’t in a story

now and then?

 

 

　

100

 

 

crazy is walking sideways

through the trees

like slipping

through a keyhole

she stops at the edge

of a clearing

this is all new

like old tricks

I dreamed god

now by god I am dreamed

just me myself

and my carcass

crazy stands still

gazing across the field

spanish horses and me

sabotaging my life

always looking

for another

　

 

 

103

 

 

holding two thoughts

I cannot pull apart

my dream of horses

and their thunder in my ears

remembering the man

beneath the tree

not the scientist

but the other

and a third thought

having nothing to do with god

when I wake I’ll wash

my face in the creek

I will offer alms

to the birds

and I’ll step into

the rudderless boat

drifting through

my fourth dream

　

104

 

 

a bone juts out from earth

crazy kicks it free

all the bones

that have been dug up

and the more

that have not been found

she brushes dirt

off the bone

cattle too are human

don’t you think?

crazy waves the bone

like a talisman

I was in the cave

and I am here

isn’t that

the truth

she wraps the bone

and returns it to earth

someone said ask

and it will be given

that’s never worked

for me

but to err is divine

I said that