OMG.

"One day, my son,

all this will be

plastic."

40 or 43*.

I recognized him immediately 
sitting at the coffee shop's yard he 
was my teacher and now 
losing his hair in the fall 
looking with x-ray eyes  
at the bottoms of young maidens 
who pass and pass 
and pass and he 
40 or 43 
was my teacher and now  
a newspaper on the table 
the ashtray the cigarettes 
the keys the keys 
the keys clouds floating 
the young maidens pass 
pass in the fall with their pretty legs 
and he looks up 
40 or 43 
was my teacher and now 
undressing the sky 
with great compassion 



*Poem by Yonathan Geffen. Translated from Hebrew by me.

Defense / Budget.

I grabbed life 

by the throat and 

it gave me a kick 

in the balls. 

Storming Up a Cook.

Walk a mile 

in 

my shoes.  

Then, 

see how they smell. 

Social Diver.

All you love is need.

Moshe.

I have the courage
to be
anyone's hero
but mine.

Crack.

Writing
lets me forget
my
self.

Sometimes,
it even lets
me
remember.

Getting Physical.

Running
is the best way
to keep your heart
strong weak.

Money changes everything.

A mistake is like
love.

Once you pay for it,
it no longer exists.

Stroke.

When life
imitates art,
life is artificial and
art
is lifeless.

True
living
is artless.

Crowded.

Some copy,
others paraphrase.

Kids are the only ones
still
that can say anything new.

In medias res.

Funny
how quickly we find the need
for a look,
touch,
any type of attention,
from someone new,
who was not there,
and was never needed.

Perhaps because they
make us feel like we found our "self" and,
quickly,
we become attached
to that "self" and need the other
to constantly reinforce it
by remaining there.

Until we find ourselves again.

Little Wing*

Place me

under your wing

and be to me
a mother
and kin

your bosom will be
my head's refuge

a home
for my
lost
prayers

And
at an opportune time

between darkness
and light

reach
and i'll make
my
suffering
known

they say
there is
youth in this world

where has my youth
all
gone?



*Originally from C"N Bialik's "Place me under your wing", translated by me. The last 3 stanzas were ommited. I think it says enough as it is.

Blof

Life
is a long
massage session

in a five-star hotel
in Shanghai

You forget yourself in parts of it
in others
the pressure reminds you
how human you are

and through all this
you always
always
wish that the ending
will be happy

and if it is
it is
probably
illegal

Beijing 2008.

Driving through a lane
designated for bicycle riders,

a local taxi driver
honks
at an old lady pedaling before him.

Observation.*

The cygnet finds the water:
but the man
Is born
in ignorance of his element (....)



*Source Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barret Browning

Thisoriented.

Here I am:
lost in Beijing,
found in Tokyo.

Shift.

"Is it so difficult for you to explain?",
she asked.

I am, but
once the snowflake lands
on the palm of your hand,
all you have
is a drop of water.

Reflex.

I guess,
my best feature is an ability to see beauty, and
make it visible to others.

Can, doh.

Before knowing what it is,
I already know I will reach my next goal and
end up in the same spot.

So, the only challenge is
to make sure that
wherever I go,
I remain
by
your
side.

Povre Artur

When you think about it,
life is always
elsewhere;

once you stop,
It's here.

2000 ate.

For a while there I believed

that gravity exists.

When I looked down,
properly,
I realized,

it is just a bunch of dwarves
clasping to the tip
of
my
shoes.

Beijing Weather.

Standing outside,
It's 5 below zero and the sky is Blue.

Feels like a bit
of both,
and not enough of either.

Crack.

I dread the day
when I will write
about a
love of the kind
that everyone else is
looking for

she will smile to
you
from this page
and I will be
in
Peace.

Swoosh.

Action is the highest
form
of
prophecy.

Orientalism.

A woman of 45
kilograms
can be pretty
heavy
if she is standing on
your head
for long
enough.

Pro-re-gress.

Waiting for a taxi in
the rain
i met a drunk
Chinese
girl
in need of
attention

a few years back,
i thought,
this could be the beginning
of a beautiful
friendship.

The set up.

You rise and
I
close my eyes and
dream

about

forgetting.

Nameless.*

We were thrown out of heaven
We were thrown out of Spain
We were thrown out of school
And where am I and where are you

The French say
There is a little death in every goodbye
And I say
There is a lot of goodbyes in every death

And the love of your life
Is the only goodbye
You cannot take




*By Jonathan Geffen. Translated by me.

Google Earth.

All
looks
small
from above

below,
people still are.

Fleeting.

My Skype
contact list
tells me you're online

like a gust
of wind
transporting a whiff of perfume
across a room.

Medio.

Tragedy is
modeling your love
on books
you no longer
read.

Blow.

Winter is late this year
is it
an apple or your
apple

I miss
?

Drawer.

I am not following
the party
line,

I
am only here
to make a
point.

The Ring

I don’t need you
to throw me a towel I just

need

to know
that it’s there.

Tatemae.

A Jew can answer the phone in the middle of prayer, but he is not allowed to utter any words. He can mumble, make sounds, but not speak.

She keeps ringing and I keep picking up.

-“hmmmm”
“What do you mean?”, she asks.
-“ psssst”, I reply.
“Is everything ok?”
- “phhhhhhhh”
“I miss you.”

Amen.

Achieving victory with a single stroke.

I do not eat
Eastern bunnies for
religious purposes,

I am just addicted to chocolate.

Stick.

An old Japanese man once told me to
forget the fishing rod once
the fish is caught.

So
What should I do with this bird?

Comedescend

Winter is dying.
Birds fall from the sky
and plastic bags hang on to naked trees
I raise myself and
the window shows me
blue

When the sun goes up in Beijing,
it is still 2002 on Glenferrie Station

in a big supermarket in a foreign country, I once saw a girl looking for some thing.
she found
it

Amusing to think how true all this drama really is

Will the tree remember the sun that shone the winter away
and if not, will that prevent the sun from shining again

We walk hand in hand,
I slow down and make myself heavy
on your arm
I open my mouth
“Pull me”
but you can not hear

and still,
you pull.

Kineticks.

Running towards each other from
opposite directions

When we meet,
grab my hand and we will spin together in the centre.

Post.

If you say this is a stick,
I will beat you with it.

If you say this is not a stick,
I will beat you with it.

Let’s just sleep on it.

Cave.

I look to you and see me.
I want you to stay just the way
I never was, so that one day, we
could be where
we always wanted
to be.

Lose the
two,
three,
four, and the one
will be
one.

Imposed

Subject to
the object
we
will lose the boat
once
the (gefilte) fish is caught.

A Splash of blood in an open field.

Naming is
a necessary evil.

It is the Nouning
that I
lament.

Penchant.

Heaven and Earth
are not sentimental

but,

they do have their moments.

Point.

"...now,
once you have found the way,
you ran out of horse..."



- From a poem by Nathan Alterman, translated by me.

Sense

I cannot fall asleep if I know you will wake me up in thirty minutes
"Why?"
because I
like to wake up naturally.
"So,
I will wake you up naturally."

Piece.

A sword so fast,
the cut is felt but
the blade is yet
to be

seen

Is it you or time
again
I know it is unreasonable to

bleed over three days of silence.

Love in the time of influenza

My stomach hasn’t been
wrong
for a while

You take off
and smile
I
try to take
whatever I can

Reality
is sleeping

next to me

all the rest is unnecessary.

Step.

I can bring you to the
well but
I can't make you

Jump.

Havdalah.

In bed with a bottle
the Sake is cold and you
are
sun on white linen.

The Way.

Act
like a vegetable in order
to learn
the difference between the flowers
and
the fruits.

Fist.

Together, we fall
her fingernails in my skin
as if
letting go now
would make a difference.

The weather is not
as they said
it would be.

Title Credits.

At the end, we
all wear the same.
Close.

Stroke.

A strawberry
grows
bristles
to remind
you
it is only
human.

Nose.

I have been
wearing the same shirt
all day.
I wonder if I
should change.

Da Ke Do.

Sunset,
a band playing on Umeda bridge,
I lean on the guardrail and feel the cars rushing below.

Cool.

Pessoa said writing is
the most agreeable way to ignore reality, perhaps
also the most intense way
not to.

I feel my compromises closing in on me,
I reach out for my sword,
but my pen is gone.

Slice.

A Silence you can hear only when others talk
when all is clear I see the one and on-
ly you are on my mind.

Mic ro

Even
if some sing well,

it is still just
a karaoke
parlour.

Exec.

I love you and my love for you.
This is the sentence,
and it must end here

Elan.

Tomas looked up to them and muttered: “The difference is that I am really alive while the rest of you are jerking off.”
“No”, they replied, “The difference is that we’re jerking off to a magazine, while you’re using your imagination”.

Start.

I have been thinking about ______ for a long time, but only in the light of these reflections do I see her clearly. She is lying on a bed, surrounded by auspicious items from the local branch of IKEA. “Promise you’ll never write something so cruel about me!” she says.

“Like what?”, he answers, his eyes still sweeping the floor for his underwear.

She lowers her eyes to the manuscript and reads:

“… A nice communal shower, he thought. She was now in the bathroom redrawing her eyebrows, and he was already contemplating a good way to get her on a taxi. Off course, these thoughts were a joke. She was here on a short visit, and there was no way he was going to send her home in a taxi, just like the young Egyptian princess would never have sent young Moses, whom she just found in a bulrush basket, home in a taxi. For the simple reason that in the world in which both existed, taxis are yet to be invented. Nevertheless, the hypothetical dialogue crossed his mind. “

TBC

Drip.

Life is a urinal.
There is a target at the bottom for everyone to aim at.

You may choose to stand closer,
aim higher,
avoid the ricochets.

But

even if you succeed,
your shoelaces get wet because of
all the idiots who stood there before you.

Hanzo.

“But…”, her eyes glared at him, begging to be contradicted, “Even the Buddha said human feelings are impermanent”.

“Well”, he said, “maybe he just didn’t meet the right girl”.

Oracle.

At this rate,
you’ll spend your life
describing things.

Nuance.

“His heat makes me suffer,
but your cool makes me miserable”

Of Old.

In love as in Language:
once you shed all you have learnt
all you have is your mother’s.

Dry.

So, can we love anything beyond a thought?
“Can we?” he scoffed, “Sweating is not the fruit of an activity,
but an activity in itself”.

MonoTheism.

I walk past a beauty parlour and China looks me in the eyes
She nods
A suggestive smile begging me to enter like so many foreigners before me
Everything is wet
You cannot call it rain because it is suspended in mid air
You are only named once you hit the ground

A family is trailing a hospital bed up the street
The iron guardrail hits the side of my pelvis
Sharp
A sheaf of white hair peeps under the pink bedsheet

A drop of sweat splashes on the page
The humid silence calls for a mosquito buzz to no avail
Stoic as her hand slowly lands on my shoulder

Fever
she says
I blink
sleep maybe

She looks at the page
Funny how China creeps into your writing
she says

Her face saddens
The room freezes as a thought crosses her mind
The lengths he will go to not to make sense
She knows she is only a symptom

Tomorrow I will go to the doctor near the Great Hall of the People
It’s just Virus he will say.
Very popular with white people
get it from kissing
you need to rest
Rest

I close my eyes and wake up to a pink towel
Did you call me
she asks
way too late
I think or say

Lady Bar? a middle aged woman taps on my back
I keep walking
An old man in a singlet sits on today’s paper and looks at me with tiny eyes

She removes the towel from my face and lays a hand on my forehead
She is Japanese
but the smell of her hair reminds me of the beach near my hometown.

Her eyes are worried
You never told me you love me.

A Lawn.

You do not see more people
on the streets of China than in any other
country, but

you know that they are there.

Swimming works the same,
as long as it is in water, but,
in the middle of the ocean,
even the most able swimmer is
well aware of the depths below him.

Chinese Proverb.

If you bow,
bow low and
if you take a condom,
take two.

Occupied.

"All your poetic memory are belong to us."

Oh, Be One.

Barking on a dog for
eating pork
in front of a synagogue

it is absurd to frown upon
the chemical interplay
inside one’s
brain

you can avoid being materialistic, but not
material

I (think I) am here to save the princess.
she lifts her gaze from the scorched earth
around us, and
looks into my eyes:

“Is that a light sabre in your pocket,
or are you just happy to see me?”

Loose

“Those who think can make only mistakes.”

A climatic moment of realisation, or a glimpse of a cheerless finish?

A soldier seeks three indications before killing a man: a shout, a physical gesture, and a shot in the air. How many signs does it take to bring a woman to life?

I find hope in the physical pain your absence inflicts on me. A writer of my kind cannot invent a hero like you, no sufficient kindness in my arsenal.

Outside the page, reality, too, is created by decisions. I will have enough time to make compromises when I’m old, if that’s what I really want.

Come.

Slippery when Dry.

“When I am wet”, she says,
“things look different”.

She opened her eyes last week and
the sun has been up

ever since

Inside the ocean
fish don’t smell
as bad but
shrimps are still not kosher.

Stand

I judge my life by
the authenticity of
my writing
about
it.

Red, for strawberry

On the way to the club I thought: it is better to write stories for than to live stories about. I got in and a big Irish guy punched me in the ear. Perhaps he was trying to tell me something, perhaps I just deserved it. In any case, it didn’t hurt much. I came home, rang her, and cried. What was I thinking?

She will be here in July. Peaceful sleep is a few weeks away.

The flower of carnage.

And so, the sun sets in the east. Outside a memorial shrine for war criminals and others, dry leaves fall: Is it the sun or gravity?

Fooled by nature. Spring was here a month ago, and now it is raining again and then / the smog is gone. Seeing clearly makes me happy.

The showdown at Shinjuku station. Where does your fist go
when you open your hand?

To the nearest Louis Vuitton store, perhaps,
who am I to know?

The movie is over.
The audience left an hour ago.
On the screen,
he falls.

Clap.

The lightness of being unbearable.

There is an easy way, one simple rule to follow: Be modern in your words, and postmodern in your actions. Say what you should, Do what you have to, and get what you should not have to.

Exactly at noon, I was looking south, but
the sun wasn't there.
The Chinese government enforced a standard time across the country, and
the sun was already in the west.
You were in the east,

the government restrained itself.

Your absence from my gaze impairs my vision
They are
all invisible to me

now

Spin

"One who loves god cannot wish that god will love him in return. If the man would strive to that, he would wish that god, whom he loves, would not be god; and if so he would wish to become sad, which is absurd. Hence, one who loves god cannot strive that god will love him in return."



Brauch Spinoza, The Ethics, Chapter V., phrase 19. Translated by me.

Devine.

An old Jewish script says to love is to remember each person in his moment of glory, as a mother remembers her son as a newborn. An expatriate European novelist from the previous century describes love as the progeny of a metaphor through which the loved occupies the lover’s poetic memory. A heretic philosopher defines real love as the one with which god loves himself through us.

How to hit a man’s head from 150 meters with an M-16? Keep one eye shut, take a deep breath, and pull the trigger.

The answers are all here, you – not. Fine command of English, and a few good books. And now, a new one. Language, that is. Too many people understood my English .

“Only a writer can love like this”, she says. True. Someone who is truly present could not have achieved it from such a distance.

The sun shined today in Beijing. Beautiful colors, as the light somehow hides the filth instead of exposing it. Joy.

The blond leading the blind

“Was it ever as good as to be bad enough now?” Asking difficult questions without a bottle in your hand is never an easy task. Sentences that only sound cool and mean no thing. So what is it then?
"I don't know". It just feels like there’s too much skirt, and not enough legs.

Lube.

“It’s quite simple, really”, she said.
“Growing up is learning not to feel guilty for doing the things you have to do in order to get the things you don’t have to get.”
So, what you are saying... it is learning to compromise with yourself.
“No”, she sighed emphatically.
“It’s not about compromise;
it’s about suspending all negotiations.”

Typo

She was so elusive,
cool
in a way only an American who was born before
1980 could understand.

Touch her as she slides away between the plans
of your hands.
I have to live you again, she says and
before you make sense, she is already a memory.

The sun is in your eyes, down
on your knees now.
An intellectual aftertaste:
living is leaving.

Pushing, your luck.

...And Judah said unto his brethren, “What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Chinese, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh”: and his brethren were content. Then there passed by Chinese merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit. But the Chinese were reluctant; “We are manufacturers”, they said, “We buy nothing, we will take him for free”. And the brothers took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to Jacob, their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. Only upon his next visit to Hong Kong, did Jacob learn how wrong he was...

Aharon Spelling

“Don’t sit down”, I told him. “I have nothing to say. The things that are dear to me are so few. The Jews loved their god for 5,000 years and still haven’t called it by name. Why should I?”.

Dis Miss (イチゴ)

Your little stories keep us alive. Seeing you again will be easy. It is again and again that worries me. For now, I rather miss from afar, than hit you from up close. Or is it hit you from too far, rather than miss you from too close. I am yet to meet a child who loves life as much as you, or one that makes it worth loving as much as you do. Why bother with words. Come when you are ready.

Appetite for Distraction

All that are
lost
find you and
all that
you find
you
lose.

Page One, Quarter Two.

“Riddle me this”, he said. “I am lying on a hard bed in a small Cantonese industrial town. Listening to a Japanese folk band from the 1970’s singing about catching the breeze while walking in the streets of Tokyo. I still feel the taste of the shrimps I had for dinner in my mouth as I munch on some Passover-proof “Bamba” chips my mother sent me from Israel. “

“Earlier, I had a few ‘Glico’ strawberry sticks my guardian angel sent me from Japan. Her package reminded me.”

“I got out of bed. Its late. At night, I mean. I know where I am going now. I will write it in this country.”

“how did you say you’d call it”, the other said, “all about eve?”. “No”, he replied, “Women I knew in the Biblical sense of the word albeit… albeit it actually revolves around the only one I didn’t”.

Suspended Sentence (Pass, Over, and Out)

“No need to worry”, she said.
“Women under 45 kilos don’t count in the face of any god”

Passover Koan.

The Jews eat flatbread
for a week,
in remembrance of their exodus.
Why do the Chinese eat rice all year?

Gin News.

Supply and demand,
supply and demand.
Me, my thoughts,
supply and demand.

Lingo

I believe that
F8 has brought us here.

Where’s F10?

Dream of Red Mansions

I remember
other days
when you were dreaming different dreams.
Generations change,
time applies. Hope falls into
line.
The worst place in the world to make mistakes.

Vacuous

You can only
regress to
impress
yourself but

the centre
of it all
is somewhere
else.

People's Republic of Sinai (Rising in Red)

In a big country with
too many idols
and not enough god

The sun is setting and
Moses
misses
your golden calves.

Green Bristles

She left, I left, and that’s what’s left
for now
I woke up and China was red
with strawberries
in my mouth
I can feel the sun’s
warmth even when

she

is on the other side of the world

If I can’t have faith, at least
give me the strength to remember the taste.

Tereza's Sword / The purest thing in Japan

"...It was funny to hear about your dream, because I also dreamed about you, recently, and it was sad, too.You were in Japan and at my home with me. But you joined a group of gangsters, and was missing. I tried to find you, riding on an elephant, and finally found you in a palace. but you see me as if you don't know me, and i understand that you are not looking at me anymore.Crazy dream desyo??..."

Cons of Prose

“Another book that makes me dream”, she said.
“where is the one that will wake me up?”.

Strawberry Stains.

Sleeping in slices;
the challenge of
remembering a feeling.

Jonathan Polar

I wouldn't know if
the glass is half empty or
half full.

I drink straight from the bottle.

Change Settings.

It is so easy for me
to say "Hello" and
"Goodbye".

The hard part is
the silences in between.

Crack.

Scents carried by the wind.
Sights blur and fade.
I wonder if I really know now -
only gods should be loved like gods.

(The "s" at the end shows
I still haven't reached the last question)

Automanic Empire (True Love).

All those poems
I wrote
about you:
how much I loved
reading them.

Prologue / Here's to new beginnings!

“I’m astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing: it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will’s surrender. I begin because I don’t have the strength to think; I finish because I don’t have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.”



Fernando Pessoa, Book of Disquiet, 152.

Absence.

Absence., originally uploaded by Gogi.

Hutong in Beijing, 2002.

Modern History

“There are only two kinds”, she said. “those who turn ruins into institutions, and those who turn institutions into ruins”.

Bend it like Leibowitz

Treat her like one treats a god, or
better still,
like one treats himself:

superficially familiar
yet mindlessly
in love.

Weapons from another era.

Funny how
I miss you more
when you are here
than when
you're not.

Perhaps,
I really am afraid of you
and all you can do
to a person like
me

with your
purity and
kind smile:

weapons from another era.

When you are away
I can at least
try,
but now
breathing your hair
on a lazy Sunday morning

I know.

Strawberry Aftertaste.

I am busy
today:
no
time
to forget you.

Resuscitate the Author

Love you because
you
understand
me
(the way I want you to).

Nihon Bagu Originally uploaded by Gogi.

Marshall McCluless

"What medium?",
she said "don't be silly,
it's the Large.
The Large
is
the message."

Front Originally uploaded by Gogi.

Stats.

Living
my life
is less
important.

What I really
want to do
is
tell you
about
it.

Logos

Not only women
bleed
in cycles.

Tray-Torn

I woke up with a beautiful city on the window next to my head. How long have I been here? I closed my eyes, trying to think of the proper gesture to send her home with.

When I opened my eyes, the flight attendant was already collecting the headphones.

Cities.

'It’s not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust
Say goodbye to alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to alexandra lost.'




Leonard Cohen / Ten New Songs

Is the message.

I need to design
a new person
for my web site.

Venture Capital

But if I leave,
who will read my poetry?

- "Who reads it now?"

Yes,
but,
the options...

Equilibration

"You spend
your life
between
being
too cool
and being
too cold"

Natural Selection

Is it raining
outside, or
are you just
happy
to see me?

But it’s not

But it’s not enough Venus
you come and go with
all that beauty of yours sometimes
you even stay the night sometimes
you even do the dishes
you’re not helping me Venus
when I am in storms and in the darkest
of holes when I am no longer
able to dream and to sail
from this bed no
Venus I want
the real thing
i.e. you with me
I am very tired I am
hungry Venus and how much
more can one eat
mythology



From Farewells, by Jonathan Geffen, translated by me.

A (slanted) View to a Kill

The house
never suited me
that much.

I only moved in to see
if i'm really
in love
with the neighbour(s).

Fossil

Are you really 25?
“yes”
-Born in 1980?
“aha”
-What have you seen, I mean, it must have been very different back then.
“Well”
- yes?
“The world is a parody of itself ten years ago.”

What time is it?

"After these things
God tested Abraham,
and said to him, ‘Abraham!’
And he said, ‘Here am I.’
He said, ‘Take your son, your only son, take Isaac,
whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering
upon one
of the mountains
of which
I shall tell you’."



Photo by N-Ino

catch

“The point is to make sure these people need us,
so we can maintain our present position”, he said
“The welfare state is the ultimate proof that
supply side economics simply work.”

West

As you're walking along
with your famous pink thongs
a wave -
a big wave -
hits the beach
of Patong.

You have been
on that beach
though not
for too long,

It is famous now, too
like your
famous
pink
thongs.

Sign from above

Do not talk
to the driver
while tram is
in motion.

Fare

I was brought here
by a woman.

It is only
appropriate
that a woman will
take me back.

Economy stupid

I have not yet
become
comfortably numb,

just one of those
people
that sleep
on the tram.

Reverence

“Man,this guy fancied himself so much,
that when he had to take a leak,
he would wash his hands before going to the bathroom”.



From: Women I knew in the Bibilical Sense of the Word (PP)

Honky Tonks Trifecta

"Leave me alone,
i'm in love. "

"If you're blond,
Don't bother."

"Honey,
I think I'm wet."

Qualify

Morning in Paris:
The first day of school,
and I wanted to go back home with my mother.

For security reasons,
the building was the same one my kindergarten was in,
yet,
I was unable to let her go,
and leave me there,
with all the people I already knew,
and even the same teacher.

And so
she told me,
that if you don’t go,
and add your name on the first day,
you can
never
ever
go to school.

Now,
how do you expect me
to trust
women?

(and why the hell do I remember this?)

Zenith

Singing Japanese Jazz
in a Shibuya
Karaoke parlour,

like chasing
kids
for the Israeli army
in the streets
of
Bethlehem.

Blossom

It’s all good now,
but will you stay next to me while I’m leaving?

Special Consid.

How can they talk
about tsunamis,
when
in 4 months
we will all
be
25?

Fockus

How
do you expect
to understand what you want,

when you dream
in one language
and wake up
in another?

Boredher

Are you willing to learn
a new language?
Or
did you just
come here to
ask me what I am famous for?

Leaving Tokyo

The god forsakes Antony/ Constantine P. Cavafy (Greece, 1911)

When suddenly, at the midnight hour,
an invisible troupe is heard passing
with exquisite music, with shouts --
your fortune that fails you now, your works
that have failed, the plans of your life
that have all turned out to be illusions,
do not mourn in vain.

As if long prepared, as if courageous,
bid her farewell, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all do not be fooled,
do not tell yourselfit was a dream,
that your ears deceived you;
do not stoop to such vain hopes.

As if long prepared, as if courageous,
as it becomes you who have been worthy of such a city,
approach the window with firm step,
and with emotion, but not
with the entreaties and complaints of the coward,
as a last enjoyment listen to the sounds,
the exquisite instruments of the mystical troupe,
and bid her farewell,
the Alexandria you are losing.

Tokyo Leaving

"And you who were
bewildered by a meaning;
Whose code was broken,
crucifix uncrossed
Say goodbye
to alexandra leaving.
Then
say goodbye
to alexandra
lost."


Leonard Cohen/Alexandra Leaving

Su-Ké / 愛する

The best way to warm a sword up is
to put it in your stomach.

Then,
make her feel safe
by moving
as little
as possible.

Zag / Diagonal

“Listen, dear,
the only straight thing about this
is your hair."

Frequent Flier II

As in real life,
every journey entitles you to another one.

Frequent Flier

Do not be discouraged.
It takes a lot of dipping to produce fine honey.

(pity, though, that the bee is not the beneficiary)

Sample

I love you as one loves
a flower
on the first days
of summer:
Briefly,
yet with great pleasure.

Culture Shot

Do not waste time looking through the muddled waters:
Your Saké is here.




Photo by StriderHanzo

ZenZen Sammuii (Definitely Cold)

White snow
on a Tokyo sidewalk.
A salon-tanned girl
with bronze coloured hair
sips
from a small bottle of evian.

Leap of Faith / Diamond Cutter / Japanese Dreams

You don’t have to be a Samurai to know the world for what it is.
The snow falls;
The drying, orange-coloured leaves you looked at are already on their way to another place.

Hardly, memories remain.

He pulls out his sword:
“Write, for Christ’s sake!”

Aramaic Proverb

When our love was strong,
we could lie down,
together,
on a sword’s flame.

(Now, once it has weakened or ceased,
a bed of sixty cubits is not enough:Each feels crowded by the other’s presence.)

Blow Me

Even
in
Japan,
People
don't
understand my English.

Generating

How can I write?
The pain I feel is hardly enough to move me.

(or, as Fernando Pessoa once wrote, ‘even with feelings I am a bit of an atheist’)

Hisashiburi

The sun is rising
on the roofs of Tokyo.
The music
is
pumping
and I am
looking up
wishing God
will always give me
what I need.

Plane language

From one
duty free affair
to another.

There is no end,
But am I really after one?

Reconciliation

She is whiter than I,
Yet it must be a sin.

“Don’t worry about your god”
she says. “The buildings
here are earthquake-proof”.

Itinerary.

Black eyes,
like a Zen
circle:

Find
only
what you bring there
with you.

Red all about it.

The fine
Chocolate
is no mask:

You are as ambivalent
as a strawberry.

Out of touch

She emailed me from Japan:
if u want me to
put strawberries on your cake,
just tell me.
I can do it
in a parfect way
now.

Figuratively

When
we will meet
I will
hold on

like a poet
to his suffering.

Hindsight

Is that what it means to be in love, Lydia?

I was
beautiful,

and you

looked at me
and
understood.

Oral Relativism

Satisfaction eludes
you
in the streets of Tel Aviv

Please yourself:
piss anywhere you like.

Structuralism

She stood in an alley, her eyes teary from the cold wind. She knew he was not mean; he could not have reacted otherwise to her warmth. “It’s love,” she said “overshadowed by sky scrapers”.

December 11

The airplane is swaying like a 12-year-old boy in St Kilda. A Chinese man rests his elbow on mine and coughs. The screen ahead shows Thai children, in training to become circus performers. The turbulence continues; several passengers gasp loudly.

I think of my mother, crying. She is, not I. It is not going to crash; I close my eyes and breathe slowly. Not one of the crewmembers is to be seen, no indication to the severity of the situation. Then a smell of warm rolls breaks the tension. I will be in Thailand in 7 hours.

Exactly three years ago, John and I were on a Vietnam airlines flight from Bangkok to Melbourne. The novel, barren, land revealed itself as we were finishing the fifth round of a cheap red wine.

Then came a summer filled with substances and substance, with defining and re-defining moments, with Danielle.

*

‘Not at all blond’, she said, fixing her breast in front of the mirror. ‘He flew to… yeah… some Asian country’. Someone was flushing a toilet behind here. ‘There you have it’, Nadja said, stepping out of the red booth. He was there two weeks earlier; no more.

‘It’s you and all your abstract shit’, Nicole said, the two now in full view of each other in front of the mirror. Nadja, now fixing her own breasts, ignored the last comment.

*

Last night was her birthday. He was not there. She should not be angry, though; she knows how far he must travel. She will see him tonight, after work. She wonders how his hair is now; he knows she looks the same. She is too strong for time - or any other element that passes by her country - to alter.

John expected him to arrive in the morning, like in the previous times. He booked a table for seven at ‘’Sirocco’ - dinner. It has been six months since they last saw each other and John’s father insisted on celebrating at the most expensive restaurant in Bangkok.

*

He had a meeting with Esther before he left. The academic year is over now, and they can finally be just friends. Like Tony Soprano at Doctor Melfi’s office, he was sitting there, trying to convince her she should share the fixations he brought with him from the old country.

She should not worry about this, he thought. All the people in this story are as real as they are not. It’s the thought that counts, and these thoughts has not much with anyone he ever met in person.

*

The sky is clear and the Chinese man is now asleep. Every so often, he raises himself to a seating position, pecks the seat ahead of him, and falls back again.

*

Horizontal; sideways. He breathes into her hair; above her shoulder, a ray of light glorifies dust specks held in mid air. Has anything got to be less simple than this? Yes. Why? I am ashamed to say.

Lube

The air reeked of damp cigarettes and he was lying on the floor; next to him, an empty bottle of ‘Jim Beam’ touching the tip of her black boots. ‘It’s those compromises that you make’, she said, staring down ‘they will be the end of you’.
‘You are right’, he said, slipping out a burp, ‘from now on I’ll stick to Jack Daniels’.

Console

‘Imagine a world with no soy milk.’ he thought. A cold wind was blowing from the meat section of the Barkly Street Coles. The sun never rose that day; as he stepped out of the nightclub in Fitzroy Street, it was already up. Where do you go when it is too bright to dream?

“Coles” - a big, orange sign hollered from the other end of the street. Where do you drown all this: lack of sleep, the unexplained energy he gets on Sunday mornings, the heat? He wanted something natural and pure, something white and soothing, to engulf him, to fill. And the wind changed; warm, Mediterranean flavours coming from the deli section in the eastern part of the store. There it was in front of him. ‘Thank god’, he thought. ‘Imagine a world with no soy milk’.

There's a crack in everything

Standing in front of
a cistern
in a toilet
of a public cinema

dozens of old people
outside
are here for the opening
of a festival of
Jewish films

An acoustic guitar breaks through the
sounds of a busy toilet
and then
Leonard Cohen's voice
sings
about
Suzanne.

Geelong Legend

"If i could pour ice cream properly,
I would never drink beer."

Family First

Tram
number 69
has been changed
to 16.

Blame it on the Jews!

Beach Boys Wisdom

"We're gonna get there fast
and then we'll take it slow."

French etiquette

"I hear you're going home soon."

- I'm sorry, who are you?

Property Boom

The balcony looks nice.
But what I really need
is a European
washing machine.

Once more with feeling

Sucking
a spoon,
does not
make
it
softer.

Brunette Glitter

Soon,
the sun will dry you like the rest;
leaning on a bar,
somewhere in St Kilda pond;

you are about as special as a Polish Blond.

Things you learn from Blond people on a sunny day

'it's not about what you eat,
it's about where you eat.'

(It's not about where you eat,
it's about who you eat.)

Non-core Juxtaposition

Quality:

Rendered Pathetic

“At 5am”, she said.
“Everything was perfect”.

“Then”,
she sips her orange Champaign,“I woke up”

Oxidized

A blond girl with a dress hat, sitting on his lap:
"What ever happened
to old school brunettes
with Tennessee Whiskey?"

She jumped up violently:
"Oh my god,
the Pizza is here"

Onomatopoeia

Standing still in a moving train.
You are on the phone,
but all I hear is the engine.

Significant Others

You only smile
when I talk
about
your shoes.

Do not resuscitate

(as long as its cold)

A fridge never wonders
whether or not the light outside
stays on
once the door is closed.

Iconomic Rationalism

Don’t
judge a book
by its cover;

watch TV instead.

Perpetual Visitor

Please don’t
take my words
too seriously.

I am only
in love
with the language.

Clear

Gasping with anticipation; waiting for the rain.
How good it feels
to drink hot chocolate with a brown haired girl
a day before the election

in a country
that
still
has
hope.

Glitch

I see you
waking up
comforting me in my own language.

I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel

'It’s not sexual pleasure I’m after,’ she would say.
‘It’s happiness. And pleasure without happiness is not pleasure.’
In other words, she was pounding on the gate of his poetic memory.
There was room for her only on the rug.



Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, pp. 208-209

69

A plump girl
in a tram

speaking loudly to a mobile phone
about the anxiety of waking up naked
in the middle
of school.

Summer Expires

Summer expires within gold and orange,
within the crimson of
the garden’s fall and evening clouds
soaking in their blood.

And the orchard empties. Only a few
ramblers
cast their yearning eyes at the last
leaving storks.

And the heart orphans. Soon, a dreary day
will be knocking:
“Have you checked your shoes? Have you mended your garments?
Go out and prepare some potatoes.”



(Poem by H.N. Bialik, 1900. Translated from Hebrew by me. Click here for someone else's translation.)

Caulfield flowers

How do you reconcile the duality in your life?

Israel
is my mother,
Australia
is my wife.

Self Preservation.

Betrayal
does not
count
If you do it
with a French.

Attention

A sunflower,
looking east
waiting for your email.

Soggy Brown

It is that which paints you apart from the others.
You don't need to be anything else,
as long as you are covered with sadness.

Pillow Talk

The linen
are in the dryer;
a dollar a cycle .

Waiting,
singing Leonard Cohen to an empty bed,
I'm animated by the
prospects of their return.

Poetry

More at Engrish.com.

Haute Couture

Tram Number 16 to St Kilda beach has been delayed. A three year old refused a seat accommodation from an old Greek grandma with an undersized moustache. And I,
standing by the door
saw
a young woman
with a bag made by Christian Dior.

Damage Control

Is it possible
or not
to pull something like that
through?

She is there
I here
and an ocean of language in
between

In a penal colony on atonement day
fasting on the internet
thinking about
Japan.

Have I really grown that
strange?

Trojans

I thought I was in Paradise;
I fell asleep with a beautiful woman in my arms
and woke up on my own.

A minute later,
she walked in with a smile and a coffee.
Reluctant to give in,
I said: I'll pass.

And she replied,
"Come on,
don't be a sook.
You just love my Asian ass."

Ex

Even
in Australia,

People
don't understand
my
English.

Moving right along.

Babe,
As long
as he exists in your life,
you can never be fully committed to another man.
Just like
a Jew
in London
praying for Jerusalem
(in English).

Preoccupied

If the Americans say we can
keep this piece of land;

It is like
me
marrying your mother
and calling you
my son.

in that case
either I am
lying
or
you are retarded.

Constative.

When I was a kid, in Israel, an old man told me my name resounds like that of a fighter pilot's.
And so, I spent the next few years convinced this means I would become one.

Last night,
in Melbourne, A lady asked me for my name.

"Dror?" , she said. "Well isn't that weird ?"

Performative

Your eyes
look beautiful
when you look
at me

a joke
does not need
you to tell
it is funny

so,
please.
don't tell me
you love me.

Just what I was looking for.

My friend Keiko,
from Japan,
once
told
me

'I'm not Dangerous,
I'm safety.'


'Safety.' Keiko &. Dror, 2003

Prospects

If you
think too much
you will die
a virgin.


This is an old photo!

Equity

Whatever you think about blonds;
it is not fair to think at people who can't think back at you.


Please note: the blond girl in this image is used for illustration purposes and has got nothing to do with the above statement.

Evolution

White women
can only smile
when they're alone.

Grey

A Skyline of a Ghost neighbourhood in Bangkok, Thailand.




Near Bangkok Port.



Ice Cream!

More here.

I swear I heard this on the radio

A person stood on a roof of a ten story building with a clear intention to end his life. An ambulance arrived and parked below. The man had second thoughts. third ones. Eventually, he went back to sleep.

3 weeks later the man receives a bill from his health insurance firm. 'Dr Mr. X, you have recently dispatched an emergency unit to your address. The unit arrived to find you in sound health, and in no need of any medical assistance. Your current policy only covers cases in which our services are needed in order to preserve your health. We thus have to charge you the sum of xxx for abusing your contract with us and idly alarming our emergency services. Regards, Mr. Y., Billing'

2 months later in court, Mr X argued that the arrival of the ambulance convinced him that he will be unable to end his own life. The ambulance hence saved him from considerable physical damage. He thanked his insurance company for diligently ensuring that he is safe and sound. The Judge ordered the insurance company to pay the pseudo-suicider his trial costs and dismissed the case.

The Wisdom of Asian Capitalism

"if you want to have a cookie, have a cookie."

-An ad for a snack called... Cookie, in Thailand.

Empathy

You look different.

“Yeah, I’m wearing a hat…. Having a bad hair day”

I know how you feel. That’s why I’m wearing a shirt.

Genre

Annie was awake. "These people see everything within genre", she thought. "Their speak has no substance". He grunted and turned towards her, squashing the inflated pillow that stood between their heads. She was now looking into his eys,"Imagine a world in which people only communicate in rhymes".

Choices

He was sitting in class between two beautiful girls. On the left, a classic european woman, straight brown hair, warm brown eyes. She was surrounded by her friends and was unable to make eye contact. He was not her type. Not as far as they knew.

On his right, a blond Aussie. They were watching a debate about the importance of this or another technology's impact on western society. He rested his head on the blond's shoulder,

what do you think?

"Well" she said, "I agree with those guys, but the others argue better".

indeed.

The thin edge of the wedge.

Sarah, 56, has been married since 1967. She has two kids, 4 & 16, who resemble her more than she would like to admit. 4 & 16 are not bright, and their immense popularity stands in contrast with their unattractive features.

Recently, to spite her husband, Sarah took the kids to a DNA lab, and now the whole world knows he is not the father.

But what does this say about the mother?

Happiness

This week, ten years ago, Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz died.
Leibowitz was a Scientist, Philosopher, and Man of Letters, educated in Germany and Switzerland and died in Jerusalem in 1994.

Leibowitz's idea of Judaism maintained that the 'obligation to observe the commandments was an end in itself, and that religion therefore was not a means to a greater personal or social good'. In simple terms, it means that living a virtuous and satisfactory life does not lead to a reward but is in itself the reward; We do not overcome our desires in order to be content, but it is because we are content that we overcome our desires.

hmm.

Wuman

Last night
I wanted you
to love
me

You feel like
the first
look like
the previous
would you
be
the last

Will I leave you like
I have
before

Will I come back to
a clean slate
all the old letters
surely think
I’m so strong now
I am
but what for

Is there any way
to stop
the dance
to leave
the ballroom
to go
home
to sleep