POEMS SUBLIME AND RIDICULOUS

ON ZATO-ICHI #8, or: Why I Watch Movies
28 May 03

The blind man cocks his head to see,
His ears strain and the magic starts:
His sword flies and the villains fall,
Sublime impossibility.
Rejected for his crimes, his heart's
Desire remains to pay for all,
Without the love that rescues me
From evil and its martial arts.
The colored light, recorded squall
And foreign gestures ravish me;
Although I play the villains' parts
Myself, truth blinds me as I fall.


FRANZ'S WORD
17 July 00

If love of God and man has spoken true:
Polyphonous all truth that is divine,
It follows that no one of us can think
To speak God's truth in what we say and do.

And yet there is a truth that's wholly mine,
Not holy truth, but what makes me a link
In chains of truth — the reason that I grew
To life as fruit of love — and all that's fine
In me, the flower of food and drink:

Though devilish, I must receive my due.
In every life, some truth will form the spine,
Will rise although all else be set to sink.

What wondrous love to make our lives of night
In counterpoint reveal our truth in light.