From: hornpete@uctvax.uct.ac.za (Peter Horn)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Carsten Knoch: Poems
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:27:16 +0200
Organization: University of Cape Town


CARSTEN KNOCH





so you want to write poetry
---------------------------




so you want to write poetry:

have you considered the odds?

do you want to kill people with your words

carefully negotiated so as to form

ak 47's and hand granades?

you think that

your bouquets of expression

are way beyond

what the masses would read

and act on -

well, you are wrong.



your verses 

are taxis at war 

when you use them 

in the name of the struggle

your tendency is destructive

though politicially correct

do the people really listen

when their poeple's poets speak?

don't they just feel the pounding

of the ups and downs of their voices

in the vibrations 

of the public address system

and its ten thousands watts?



so you want to write poetry:

rather be quiet

rather don't write

than having a position but nothing to say -

when praise becomes politics

the voices of poets

resemble

the voices

of politicians.



			january 1992

CARSTEN KNOCH



arrival
-------




a generation

gone through doubt

in a day or less

yet our birthdates

concur with the spurs of time

dug into the furry sides 

of a white stallion called

lie



for you and me

who've been there

even before we arrived

who returned when

all had been viewed

seen and digested

the warm black hum of the night

is the crumpled dream

of those still dreaming

of a dream



to determine the song

our guts are warmed by soul food

to establish the poem

we feed on utopia a campfire

and angered by the flames of green

we retract into the natural cool

of daylight just blocks away

without a desire for shelter



the surest way

to interpret your soul

is to look at the back of a mirror

and scratch out your name or

someone's signature

on the grey damp surface



then plan your exit

into the night of emigration

enter an airport 

book a flight

buy some magazines

a hamburger maybe and

walk trough the brightly

reflected x-ray eyes

of the security tunnel

smiling gently at the officials

knowing the gun in your head

is safe



on the plane

your activist eyes are safely

attuned to the plastic smiles and

the plastic food

generating no suspicion

knowing 

about the letters

on the mirror at home



the streetscape

cannot even resemble the body

our heavy boots shatter

cubes of ice and mud

and multiply in sound and

aggression



the ice is a mirror 

with no reverse side

we bend down into the mud

pick our crystal

and delicately press with

our leather-clad fingers

observing the green flame

within





CARSTEN KNOCH



shop





cleaning up shop

storing away the gas lamps

into the sheltered shades of shelves

where they cohabit with jars

jars of jam and tins of fish

beans peaches brushes plates

america deeply inside this continent

no jungle the land

and a bicycle cycling along

the rim of the roof and treetops

around and around and around

the sheets white and starched

flap slowly the beaten air left

by the wings of the cycle

a handful of sweets

carefully selected according to colour

all one cellophane shape some soft

some harder

in the hands that were just holding 

fifty cents money doesn't stink here

then outside the sharing goes not far

beyond the circle of the cycle

when the cornfield centers around

grey flaky clay ground touches

the feet sometimes where the shoes

don't hold

cleaning up shop

storing away the gas lamps

the fat woman in pink

whistles to her dog to catch the cycle

the cycle of heaven

barking brutally the dog enters the velvet sky

runs on clouds, pisses against the roots of the sun

and gives up on the bicycle

which races against

against the earth sky woman dog

against speed light america africa

against us with us



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Horn 
German Department, UCT 
43 Trevor Road, Lansdowne 7764, Cape, Republic of  South Africa . 
Phone Home ZA-(021)696-1983		e-Mail: HORNPETE@UCTVAX.UCT.AC.ZA 
      Work ZA-(021)650-2936		Fax ZA-(021) 650-3726 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Horn, Walking through our sleep (Poems), Ravan Press 1974
Peter Horn, Poems 1964-1989, Ravan Press 1991
Peter Horn, An Axe in the Ice (Poems), COSAW Publishing House 
forthcoming September/October 1992
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ravan Press, P.O.Box 31134, Braamfontein 2017, Republic of South Africa
COSAW Publishing House, P.O.Box 421007, Fordsburg 2033, Republic of 
South Africa.
USA: Ohio University Press Fax (614) 593-4536
Britain: Central Books, Fax (71) 378-1811
Australia: New Era Books, Fax (02) 596-0045
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems