Thank you.
The following is the second section of 'The Young Maid,' which is dedicated to Ludwig von Ficker, his publisher and most stalwart advocate.
Silence she creates in the room
And long the yard is abandoned.
In the elderberry before the room
Sad piping of a blackbird's tune.
Silver her reflection in the mirror glass
Alien to her in the twilight glow
And wanly fades in the mirror glass
And her dread before its purity.
Dreamily a farmhand sings in darkness
And she stares, shaken by pain.
Red trickles through the darkness.
Suddenly the south wind rattles at the gate.
(trans. by Will Stone)
The moon comes up.
The moon goes down.
This is to inform you
that I didn't die young.
Age swept past me
but I caught up.
Spring has begun here and each day
brings new birds up from Mexico.
Yesterday I got a call from the outside
world but I said no in thunder.
I was a dog on a short chain
and now there's no chain.
Here I am at the gateless gate again hoping
to see father, mother, sister, brother.
Where did they come from? Where did they go?
I keep climbing this tree as old as the world
and have lost my voice up here in the thin air.
╔═╦╦╦╦═══╦╦══════╦╦╦╦═╦════════════╗ ║╔╣╠╣╚╦═╦╣╠╦══╗╔═╣║║║╩╬═╦═╗╔═╦═╦╦╦╗║ ║╚╗╔╣║╠╝╠╗╔╬╗╚╣╠╝║║║║╦╣║║╠╝║║║║║║║║║ ║ ╚═╩╩╩═╝╚═╩══╝╚═╩╩╝╚╝╚═╩╝ ╚╩╩═╩══╝║ ╚══════════════════════════════════╝
These are beautiful, especially the second and third!
Also, given your post title(s), I take it that you study astrology?
I'm glad you like Mr. Harrison! I recommend that you follow up on his other works, if these stood out to you. God knows he has plenty more besides; my volume of his collected poems is more than nine hundred pages.
I'm a rather insincere astrologist, I'm afraid. I have a few friends who are very into it, and subscribe to it in varying degrees, but my interest is more aesthetic, maybe even superficial. I find that the astrological calendar is a sweeter flavor of calendar than that which we use to organize the division of work and rest, and is more obviously cyclical. It's pleasant to consider a passage of time as having something like a personality, in accordance with the various traits and identities attributed to the signs, houses, and their rulers.
I wonder if astrologically-minded people are more open to the ancient notion of cyclical, as opposed to linear or even helical, time?
I shall indeed follow up more on Jim Harrison -- reading his wiki bio has sparked even more curiosity because of where he lived.
As far as astrology is concerned, I would say I half-believe... looking at the topic through a psychological/archetypical lens helps me to accept it more than thinking that the stars absolutely compel certain outcomes. I like thinking of it as different periods of time having different qualities to them.
It also appeals to my mathematical side and highlights the need for precision in creating a birthchart and the uselessness of pop astrology based on the sun sign alone. Just recently I have been creating a birthchart for a friend who is unsure of his birth time but has it within a one-hour window... the thing is, in his case, the difference of even a few minutes would result in him having a different ascendant, thereby affecting his house placement and a bunch of other stuff as well. Based on his persona and physical characteristics, I am pretty sure that I have established a correct birthtime for him; now it just remains to write up the rest of the natal chart interpretation...
I've rambled, I'm afraid, so I'll wrap this one up but simply noting that I feel the idea of helical time resonates the most with me.