Tuesday, 8 February 2011

There Is A Gentleness/C'è una gentilezza

There Is A Gentleness

There is a gentleness
Which is neither soft nor sweet
But emanates from strength.

There is a gentleness
Which stills the storms and violence,
The anger and the lashing out,
The search for scapegoats and excuses.
And when the all familiar folly
Shapes to repeat

There is a gentleness
Which silences the neurotic
And silences the lout.
Even if in some strange context
They both can have their uses.

There is a gentleness
Which works from inner silence,
Soothing and hypnotic,
The inner chattering falls away
And then

There is a gentleness
Which is reflective in the face of loss,
Allows a real Conscience
To speak.
It is only when violence and frustration
Come into play
Again
That I should ask myself
"Why am I so weak?"

© Geoff Davis 2004




C'è una Gentilezza 

C'è una gentilezza
che non è debole nè dolce
ma viene dalla forza.


C'è una gentilezza
che calma le tempeste e la violenza,
la rabbia e l'agitazione,
la ricerca di capri espiatori e scuse
è quando tutta la familiare follia
comincia a ripetersi


C'è una gentilezza
che zittisce il nevrotico
e zittisce lo zoticone
anche se in qualche strano contesto
entrambi possono avere la loro utilità.


C'è una gentilezza
che viene dal silenzio interiore,
rassicurante e ipnotica.
I pensieri rumorosi vanno via
e poi


C'è una gentilezza
che si riflette in un senso di vuoto,
permette alla vera Coscienza
di parlare.
E' solo quando la violenza e la frustrazione
tornano
di nuovo
che devo chiedere a me stesso:
"Perchè sono cosi debole?"


(Translated into Italian by the author and M R Selenu - 2011)



Friday, 4 February 2011

Let No Man Say There is an End

'A poor poet imitates, a good poet steals' said T S Eliot. I have to confess that I 'stole' a line or two of this short piece from T.S. Eliot himself (from 'Little Gidding' one of 'The Four Quartets') in the full knowledge that I was doing so.



Let No Man Say There Is An End

Let no man say there is an end
For no end fails to mark a new beginning.
Mankind, bacteria of the Universal Mind,
Subject to decay and death and re-creation
Running through a river of relentless change.
Expose the secret of vibration
Then there is no end, and no beginning;
There is everything.

© Geoff Davis


from Behind The Mask (Outposts Publications) 1981