My Emo Me
I wrote about a million different things while I was back East, but finished none. I suppose they’ll make it out there (here) eventually, but I’m only up to posting other people’s stuff right now.
It’s a tragic cliché—or painfully vulnerable shallowness—when poems map almost literally to one’s state of mind: instead of reading them for their autonomous beauty, it feels like I’m wearing them as clothing or protective gear. Oh well, at least I chose well.
The Dwarf’s Song
My soul itself may be straight and good;
ah, but my heart, my bent-over blood,
all the distortions that hurt me inside—
it buckles under these things.
It has no garden, it has no sun,
it hangs on my twisted skeleton
and, terrified, flaps its wings.
Nor are my hands of much use. Look here:
see how shrunken and shapeless they are:
clumsily hopping, clammy and fat,
like toads after the rain.
And everything else about me is torn,
sad and weather-beaten and worn;
why did God ever hesistate
to flush it all down the drain?
Is it because he’s angry at me
for my face with its moping lips?
It was so often ready to be
light and clear in its depths;
but nothing came so close to it
as big dogs did.
And dogs don’t have what I need.
That one was by Rainer Maria Rilke, a German if you can believe it! Translated by Stephen Mitchell quite brilliantly.
And now another song, or at least its lyrics. It’s a song introduced to me by Jenniebear. It’s by Sufjan Stevens, another genius with words—and with melody and arrangement. And vocal performance.
Sister Winter
Oh my friends I’ve
Begun to worry right
Where I should be grateful
I should be satisfied
Oh my heart I
Would clap and dance in place
With my friends I have so
Much pleasure to embrace
But my heart is
Returned to sister winter
But my heart is
As cold as ice
Oh my thoughts I
Return to summertime
When I kissed your ankle
I kissed you through the night
All my gifts I gave everything you
Your strange imagination
You threw it all away
Now my heart is
Returned to sister winter
Now my heart is
As cold as ice
All my friends, I’ve
Returned to sister winter
All my friends, I
Apologise, apologise
All my friends, I’ve
Returned to sister winter
All my friends, I
Apologise, apologise
All my friends, I’ve
Returned to sister winter
All my friends, I
Apologise, apologise
La la la la la . . .
And my friends, I’ve
Returned to wish you all the best
And my friends, I’ve
Returned to wish you all the best
And my friends, I’ve
Returned to wish you all the best
And my friends, I’ve
Returned to wish you a happy Christmas
To wish you a happy Christmas
To wish you a happy Christmas
To wish you a happy Christmas
Technorati Tags: Rilke, Sufjan Stevens, Emo, Sister Winter, The Dwarf’s Song
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