' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' Die Wandlung(The Transformation) - For Onelia Poem by Dónall Dempsey

DIE WANDLUNG
(THE TRANSFORMATION)

In this house where I
a child grew snow has entered
drifts where I have dreamed
plays inside(where once I watched
it fall outside) in wonder.


*


ICH WEISS...ICH WEISS!
(I KNOW...I KNOW!)

Snow climbs the stair where
once I had head over heels
charged down to see it
begged like the child I was then
to go outside...inside...now.


*


DU BLEIBT...DU BLEIBT!
(YOU REMAIN...YOU REMAIN!)

Snow eager to see
me after such long ago
roams through room after
room...mindless now of time it
human now...I...the falling.


*


DER HIMMEL HINABSTEIGT
(THE SKY DESCENDS)

I watch Time grow old
see it fail to remembeer
what it should remem...
this house & I falling through
its fingers...lettting us go!


*


AUFGABE
(RELINQUISHMENT)

Language strolling down
memory lane...picking its fruit
laughter & sadness
growing from the same branches
tasting now bitter...now...sweet.


*


WELCH EIN SPIEL
(WHAT A GAME!)

All my life I've been
saying 'NO! ' to YES & 'YES! '
to NO...knowing I
know nothing of everything
I should know...could know...but...don't.

*******

This is a strange sequence of tanka...written in Italian sunshine about Irish snow of long ago. I returned to the house of my childhood to find it a ruin...a shell of time and memory...snow had invaded the room where long ago I had encountered it for the first time...only now it stood where I once stood and I stood outside looking in at it. We had exchange places. Sweat stung my eyes and on an horizon Capri blinked in the distance...shimmered...as my eyes turned towards inward snow.

I was supposed to send you postcards and had planned to do a whole sequence but the post office was a mile walk away in extreme heat so I stayed put. I wrote you the poems...and some got sent to you...this sequence languished torn and forgotten until rescued by me from their papery demise.

You have them now for what...they are...worth.