söndag 4 augusti 2013

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 wouldnt remember
would I if Id died
all the lies
and maybes
and there are lies
that hold fire
and cold facts
I dont recall
she gestures dismissively
with her hand
who isnt 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 Ill wash
my face in the creek
I will offer alms
to the birds
and Ill 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
dont you think?
crazy waves the bone
like a talisman
I was in the cave
and I am here
isnt that
the truth
she wraps the bone
and returns it to earth
someone said ask
and it will be given
thats never worked
for me
but to err is divine
I said that