In Perfect Order, 2014 

Mujo*

I give
in.

I give completely in
to my breath every second.

I give completely in
to the seconds absence
to the moment’s total euphoric enjoyment.

THE ABILITY
TO LIVE IS
TO LOVE 

To live is
to hope.

To live is
to write poems.

To live is
the joy of
red, red and red.

To live is
to be in New Harbor on midsummer night,
to send The Evil away
and to see the enchanting midsummer night sky
light with flame-red hope.

To live is
to have my loved ones to midsummer supper.

To live is
to experience
a typhoon,
hurricane,
an earthquake,
a tsunami,
a radioactive leak.

To live is
to take magical jazz home
from the jazz festival in Copenhagen.

To live is
to hear whirring swallows,
humming bees,
Even Closer**.

I live, yes.
I have lived, yes.
Thanks for that.

Say that life is a puzzle.
Don’t say that life is eternal.

Say it straight.
Don’t say, What is that word.

I think, feel, age.
I feel, smell, hear, taste.
I SEE. I see again my father’s** painting.
In the beginning was the picture  and I see.

I
will
understand
THE ALL
be
part
of
THE WHOLE.

Say that poetry’s tree is l’air bleu.
Don’t say that poetry’s tree is leaf-green.

Say, fire-red signal-red ruby-red.
Don’t say color-mania.

Say world poetry.
Don’t say toneless,
colorless,
imageless,
language.

Say that Silence rings.
Don’t say that the Silence between us is still.

Say that the silence between us is honest.
Don’t say that they lie.

They know they don’t have clean flour in their sack.
Nonetheless they bake their own cakes
People are ugly,
he writes.
Say that people are beautiful, confound it.
Don’t say that he’s right, that Skinnebach.

Say they are healthy
Don’t say they are sick.

Say thoughtlessness.
Don’t say evil.

Say they tolerate others.
Don’t say they look down on others.

Say pacifism.
Don’t say war.

Say that everything is in perfect order.
Don’t say that everything is in the ugliest disorder.

SAY just this moment.
DON’T SAY in a while.

*Japanese Buddhism, impermanence, mutability, inconstancy
**Palle Mikkelborg and Thomas Clausen, 2011
***Asger Jorn, Im Anfang war das Bild, 1965

Translation: Thomas E. Kennedy