Denis Mair Poems

by Jidi Majia
Translated by Denis Mair

Poetry itself has no origin, like a spell of fog
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Who says that beauty is only in the eye of the beholder? The fact that THERE IS A BEHOLDER who possesses a SENSE OF BEAUTY is more mysterious and beautiful than any particular object could ever be!

The soul hankers for life's full adventure, and beauty holds up signposts towards aliveness and flourishing. Beauty lets us envision life's inner workings breaking thru to the surface. There is a storehouse filled with many aspects of beauty; once we've been enticed to enter by one doorway, we want to see all other aspects. Sometimes it's the vulnerability and strength of a tender young life; sometimes it is simple grace; sometimes it is dappled and layered; sometimes it is sadly transient. Each phase presents possibilities of life-force for us to resonate with.
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For a long time I've wanted to go into the gloaming
Let me go with it, right to the threshold of seeing.
I've been wondering why it has a tinge of blueness,
Is it a balm against the day's blood-soaked passions?
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(the picture is a detail from a photo posted by Abdelhaq Djellab)
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The hands lightly holding a smart-phone send a New Year blessing...
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Infatuation is like a lens
You see things spangled with dew
As if at the dawn of creation
A crack suddenly opens to reveal
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When she first began work on the big jet liners
Ocean-hopping flights made an enviable career.
Technology crafted knife-blades to cut through the sky
So a hundred-ton craft could ride on the wind.
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Out of the unbounded, and into a pair of Converse tennis shoes!
Morning meditation over, I come downstairs,
Approaching Lucky in the gray light, leash in hand.
He spins crazy circles at the end of his chain,
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Again at the hour of midnight
Like a changeling born of an angel and a demon
A long breath followed by a pant, a yowl then a sigh
Such a plaintive keening
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RIDDLES IN GREEN

1
The central pillar is so solid and definite
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Once I looked up into a tree at a bird
That was embowered in shady branches
And saw it languidly stretch one wing
As a sunbeam shone among the leaves
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