Nothing Gained

To mark the anniversary of Alain’s death, I have collected the poems I have written over the past year about  him, our relationship and its end. 

Most have already been published along with other memorials to Alain here on Tankawanka, but a few have been added, and several revised.

To read it, just click on the link here Nothing Gained. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

To read Nothing Gained by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffinjust click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

A Head Full of Stories/Ceann Lán na Scéalta

A Head Full of Stories

The dead do not nourish the living
Famished
They’re eager to eat
Our memories of them
Leave us with fuck all
But a head full of stories

Ceann Lán na Scéalta

Ní chothaíonn na mairbh na beo
Caillte leis an ocras
Ba mhaith leo
Ár gcuimhní cinn orthu a ithe
Ní fhágann siad faic na fríde againn
Ach ceann lán na scéalta

AGG20220123
for Cutty
In memoriam, Alain Bonkela Isekatuli

Depth Charge:
pero los muertos son más fuertes y saben devorar pedazos de cielo/
but the dead are more powerful and can devour pieces of the sky
from Iglesia abandonada (Balada de la Gran Guerra)/Abandoned Church (Ballad of the Great War) by Federico García Lorca translated by Greg Simon and Steven F. White

To read it, just click on the link here Nothing Gained by Andrew Grimes Griffin. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffinjust click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

CP Woodlot

Ringed by commerce cops surveillance cameras

     Young aspen leaves rustle crescendo diminuendo
         Humanimal voices laughing harmonize
     Sunlight shadow reveal conceal
         Flashes of feather leather pelt and skin

Oasis of private pleasures in public spaces

AGG20210504
A response to Wang Wei’s Deer Park
for G-RS

Depth Charge

Near the end of Laurie Anderson’s third Norton Lecture, entitled Rocks, she realized that Wang Wei’s 8^th century poem, when laid out word-by-word in English, formed a map, the synopsis of her lecture. This inspired me to look at this poem that I had not looked at for many years. And this, in turn, inspired me to translate and write a response to it.

And if your want to read a truly gorgeous response to Wang Wei’s poem, check out John Mackenzie’s Strathgartney Park. 

王維 鹿柴

空 山 不 見 人
但 聞 人 語 響
返 景 入 深 林
復 照 青 苔 上

Pinyin Pronunciation

Wáng Wéi Lù Chái

kōng shān bù jiàn rén
dàn wén rén yǔ xiǎng
fǎn jǐng rù shēn lín
fù zhào qīng tái shàng

Word-by-Word Translation

Wang Wei Deer Kindling

empty mountain not see person
but hear human speech sound
return bright enters deep forest
again reflect green moss on

Translation by AGG20210504

Wang Wei’s Deer Park

Empty mountain no one to be seen
Perhaps echoes of human speech
Sunlight returning enters the deep woods
Reflecting again on the green moss

To all the posts that are arising out of my COVID-19 confinement, click here.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffin just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

Of what was ours to lose

In the end, I’ve lost nothing
Of what was mine to lose,
Walking through a city
Invaded by a plague.

The gentleness of touch
Was the first thing to go
Missing with my comrade
I lost along the road.

Before, I had four seeing eyes
Shared two pairs of open ears,
Two tongues entwining sweetly
The silent centre of our words.

Now, we’ve both become mere shades
In this city of the plague,
In the end, we’ve lost nothing
Of what was ours to lose.

AGG20210207

Depth Charge: Reading notebooks is fundamental. In the hours after curfew I have taken to browsing through stacks of old notebooks and I came across the sketches of a poem from 2013 about wandering through a plague-ridden city. I do not remember what sparked the original, but it seemed to be waiting there for me—a memory of the future—waiting to finally be completed.

To all the posts that are arising out of my COVID-19 confinement, click here.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffin just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

I’ve tried capturing the dawn

I’ve tried capturing the dawn
Just before the sun rises
But all the colours
Come out—wrong—still beautiful
Though now—something else

What of the night nine years now
We found each other in one
Another’s strong arms—
Time-mutated memories
Caress shades and tones

AGG20200610
(for Cutty)

To all the posts that are arising out of my COVID-19 confinement, click here.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffinjust click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

Éirigh, a Éinín le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Éirigh, a Éinín le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Éirigh, a éinín, i mbarra na gcraobh,
is beir ar an ngéag uachtarach le do chrúcaí,
scol amach go haerach in ard do ghutha is do chinn
do shiolla glórmhar fuaime, in aon sconna amháin nótaí.
Ansan dein arís é is meabhraigh faoi dhó nó faoi thrí
na fíricí bunaidh do mo leithéidse ainmhí—abair
cé gur chailleas mo stór nach dócha gur chailleas mo chiall
is cé gur mór é mo bhrón nach bhfuil teora le ceolta an tsaoil.

English Tranlsation of the Irish Original

Celebration by Michael Hartnett

Rise, small bird, to the top of the tree
and clasp the topmost branch with your feet,
sing our from your throat
your torrent of glorious notes
and then your melody re-enact:
remind me, earthbound, of some basis facts—
say if love leaves me I’ll hardly lose my mind
and though grief is great so’s the music of life.

Detail of a painting by Renée Duval

To all the posts that are arising out of my COVID-19 confinement, click here.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffinjust click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

Everybody’s Mother Must Die by velvel

velvel has released their album “A Boy in Wolf’s Clothing,” It is available on iTunes, Spotify and other fine streaming platforms.

The gorgeous album is a labour of love by Michael Leon, a singer, songwriter and musician, and producer Kevin Komoda.

I am thrilled that my poem Everybody’s Mother Must Die was one of two of my poems used as lyrics on the album. Listen to it here.

The other is The Birds.

The little robins in the tall treetops
Worms wriggling in the ground beneath our feet
Must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die 

Little fish swimming voiceless in the sea
Those indefatigable honey bees
Must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die 

Our mothers patiently wait
To cradle us in the grave
Hold again in their cold arms
In death the life that they gave 

The combustible sun will burn away
Then Mother Nature giving up the ghost
Must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die
Don’t cry
Everybody’s mother must die 

AGG20160925 

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”

To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffin just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

The Birds by velvel

velvel has released their album “A Boy in Wolf’s Clothing,” It is available on iTunes, Spotify and other fine streaming platforms.

The gorgeous album is a labour of love by Michael Leon, a singer, songwriter and musician, and producer Kevin Komoda.

I am thrilled to say that one of the twelve tracks on the album sets my poem “A Response to Li Qingzhao’s ‘Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace'” to music. It is called The Birds and it is gorgeous. Check it out. 

A Response to Li Qingzhao’s “Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace”

The birds
The little birds
The little brown birds
The little brown birds
Sing wordless songs at dawn

The tree
The locust tree
The flowering locust tree
The flowering locust tree
Caressed all day by honeybees

The Moon
The Moon and Mars
The Moon and Mars—white and red
The Moon and Mars—white and red
Waltz through the midnight skies

Each day I rise
Each day I make the bed
Each day I listen to wordless songs
Watch the blossoms get caressed
Try to sleep with the Moon and Mars
Together waltzing through midnight stars

And I think at least the wind will blow
And the world will spin all of this away
Like you who would not stay
You who refuses to be seen
Not even in my dreams
Because if you could disappear
If you will not be here
Why should they persist?

The birds
The little birds
The little brown birds

AGG20140610

Depth charge: Li Qingzhao’s poem about separation from a loved one may have been the original impetus for this poem, but in the end it was a line from a Carter Family song Darling Little Joe: “Thelittle brown birds around the door,” that provided the key. I also found inspiration in Skeeter Davis’ The End of the World and, finally, by commenting on the locust tree outside my window and being challenged by a friend to turn it into a poem.

Tune: “Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace”
Separation
by Li Qingzhao

No more incense smoke from the gilt lion burner;
Quilts in the bed: a riot of crimson waves.
A night of unrestful sleep,
And I am in no mood to comb my hair,
Heedless that my jewelled toilet-set is covered with dust,
And the morning sun peeping above the curtain-hooks.
A jumble of parting thoughts,
Yet I hesitate on the verge of utterance
For fear of bitterness.
Of late I’ve been growing thin,
Not that I over-drink myself,
Nor from lament for the autumn.

Finished! Finished!
Ten thousand Songs of Farewell① failed to detain
The loved one-now gone f a r away
To Wu Ling Peach Blossom Springs. ②
Here in this mist-locked chamber
I sit brooding t h e livelong day,
With only the limpid stream showing me sympathy
As it glides quietly past the terrace.
A fresh wave of regret floods my heart
Where I gaze.

①  An allusion to a poem written by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to see off a friend, which in later generations came to be widely used as a song of farewell, with its last line
“West of Yang Guan you’ll have no more old friends ” sung as a refrain. Yang Guan was an ancient pass in present-day Gansu province.

②  The poet compares her husband to the fisherman who sojourned in the Land of Peach Blossom Springs in Tao Yuanming’s Utopian essay.

Translated by Jiaosheng Wang.

李清照凤凰台上忆吹箫
香冷金猊，被翻红浪，起来慵自梳头。任宝奁尘满，日上帘钩。生怕离怀别苦，多少事、欲说还休。新来瘦，非干病酒，不是悲秋。
休休，这回去也，千万遍《阳关》，也则难留。念武陵人远，烟锁秦楼。唯有楼前流水，应念我、终日凝眸。凝眸处，从今更添，一段新愁。

李清照鳳凰台上憶吹簫
香冷金猊，被翻紅浪，起來慵自梳頭。任寶奩塵滿，日上簾鉤。生怕離懷別苦，多少事、欲說還休。新來瘦，非干病酒，不是悲秋。
休休，這回去也，千萬遍《陽關》，也則難留。念武陵人遠，煙鎖秦樓。唯有樓前流水，應念我、終日凝眸。凝眸處，從今更添，一段新愁。

Lǐqīngzhào fènghuáng tái shàng yì chuī xiāo
Xiāng lěng jīn ní, bèi fān hóng làng, qǐlái yōng zì shūtóu. Rènbǎolián chén mǎn, rì shàng lián gōu. Shēngpà lí huái bié kǔ, duōshǎo shì, yù shuō hái xiū. Xīn lái shòu, fēi gàn bìng jiǔ, bùshì bēi qiū.
Xiū xiū, zhè huíqù yě, qiān wàn biàn “yáng guān”, yě zé nán liú . Niàn wǔlíng rén yuǎn, yān suǒ qín lóu. Wéiyǒu lóu qián liúshuǐ, yīng niàn wǒ, zhōngrì níngmóu. Níngmóu chù, cóng jīn gèng tiān, yīduàn xīn chóu.

Here is all the ci/词 and responses to it on this blog.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”

To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffin just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

A Video Response to Li Qingzhao’s “Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace”

 

Will Slack visited from Boston and we took the opportunity to record him reading Li Qingzhao’s  “Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace” in the original Chinese and my response to it. Recorded at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.

The birds
The little birds
The little brown birds
The little brown birds
Sing wordless songs at dawn

The tree
The locust tree
The flowering locust tree
The flowering locust tree
Caressed all day by honeybees

The Moon
The Moon and Mars
The Moon and Mars—white and red
The Moon and Mars—white and red
Waltz through the midnight skies

Each day I rise
Each day I make the bed
Each day I listen to wordless songs
Watch the blossoms get caressed
Try to sleep with the Moon and Mars
Together waltzing through midnight stars

And I think at least the wind will blow
And the world will spin all of this away
Like you who would not stay
You who refuses to be seen
Not even in my dreams
Because if you could disappear
If you will not be here
Why should they persist?

The birds
The little birds
The little brown birds

AGG20140610

Depth charge: Li Qingzhao’s poem about separation from a loved one may have been the original impetus for this poem, but in the end it was a line from a Carter Family song Darling Little Joe: “Thelittle brown birds around the door,” that provided the key. I also found inspiration in Skeeter Davis’ The End of the World and, finally, by commenting on the locust tree outside my wind and being challenged by a friend to turn it into a poem.

Tune: “Nostalgia for Fluting on the Phoenix Terrace”
Separation
by Li Qingzhao

No more incense smoke from the gilt lion burner;
Quilts in the bed: a riot of crimson waves.
A night of unrestful sleep,
And I am in no mood to comb my hair,
Heedless that my jewelled toilet-set is covered with dust,
And the morning sun peeping above the curtain-hooks.
A jumble of parting thoughts,
Yet I hesitate on the verge of utterance
For fear of bitterness.
Of late I’ve been growing thin,
Not that I over-drink myself,
Nor from lament for the autumn.

Finished! Finished!
Ten thousand Songs of Farewell① failed to detain
The loved one-now gone f a r away
To Wu Ling Peach Blossom Springs. ②
Here in this mist-locked chamber
I sit brooding t h e livelong day,
With only the limpid stream showing me sympathy
As it glides quietly past the terrace.
A fresh wave of regret floods my heart
Where I gaze.

①  An allusion to a poem written by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to see off a friend, which in later generations came to be widely used as a song of farewell, with its last line
“West of Yang Guan you’ll have no more old friends ” sung as a refrain. Yang Guan was an ancient pass in present-day Gansu province.

②  The poet compares her husband to the fisherman who sojourned in the Land of Peach Blossom Springs in Tao Yuanming’s Utopian essay.

Translated by Jiaosheng Wang.

李清照凤凰台上忆吹箫
香冷金猊，被翻红浪，起来慵自梳头。任宝奁尘满，日上帘钩。生怕离怀别苦，多少事、欲说还休。新来瘦，非干病酒，不是悲秋。
休休，这回去也，千万遍《阳关》，也则难留。念武陵人远，烟锁秦楼。唯有楼前流水，应念我、终日凝眸。凝眸处，从今更添，一段新愁。

李清照鳳凰台上憶吹簫
香冷金猊，被翻紅浪，起來慵自梳頭。任寶奩塵滿，日上簾鉤。生怕離懷別苦，多少事、欲說還休。新來瘦，非干病酒，不是悲秋。
休休，這回去也，千萬遍《陽關》，也則難留。念武陵人遠，煙鎖秦樓。唯有樓前流水，應念我、終日凝眸。凝眸處，從今更添，一段新愁。

Lǐqīngzhào fènghuáng tái shàng yì chuī xiāo
Xiāng lěng jīn ní, bèi fān hóng làng, qǐlái yōng zì shūtóu. Rènbǎolián chén mǎn, rì shàng lián gōu. Shēngpà lí huái bié kǔ, duōshǎo shì, yù shuō hái xiū. Xīn lái shòu, fēi gàn bìng jiǔ, bùshì bēi qiū.
Xiū xiū, zhè huíqù yě, qiān wàn biàn “yáng guān”, yě zé nán liú . Niàn wǔlíng rén yuǎn, yān suǒ qín lóu. Wéiyǒu lóu qián liúshuǐ, yīng niàn wǒ, zhōngrì níngmóu. Níngmóu chù, cóng jīn gèng tiān, yīduàn xīn chóu.

Here is all the ci/词 and responses to it on this blog.

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”

To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffin just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”

How to Pirouette on a Little Piece of Queer

Harry Giles asked the panel
How they deal
With being the token piece of queer
When allowed to speak
By the mainstream
When the well-meaning feign
Love
While they do everything
They can still
To kill

You
Own it
Said Anne-Marie MacDonald
Use your toe-hold to maintain
Poise
To get the lay of the land
Listen carefully to see
If you are among friends
Enemies or chameleons
Use good manners
These at least will keep us
For stabbing each other in the eye
With our forks

Nick Comilla said this was a challenge
He had yet to face
As he operates
Within chosen confines
Of the sub-culture
Growing
Strong

Sometimes said Kai Cheng Thom
You should stab them
In the fucking eye
With your fork
Toss a grenade onto
The unceded territory
Blow it the fuck up

And pirouette away

AGG20170429

Depth Charge: This piece of re-poet-age, and the license that implies, sprang from The Violet Hour panel held this morning as part of Blue Metropolis.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1909921899241831/

To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”
To read  as close as the clouds by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the linke and select “Save link as…”
To read the chapbook Happy Birthday Hanafuda by Andrew Grimes Griffinjust click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and select “Save link as…”