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P O E T R Y
b y
G e o r g MM e r t e n s
My poems do not rhyme. They are close to the Japanese "haiku", fables of Aesop or what is in German called "Gedichte", usually translated as "poems", but meaning literally: something very dense and compact.
C O N T E N T S :
(click on title to forward)
TURPLE THE PURPLE FROG They are jumping around in the world of cool pools The colour of fashion is green The blue ones want to be green, the purple ones want to be green, the yellow, and red ones, they all want to be in fashion: green. For all blue, purple, yellow and red frogs there is only one means to change to green: effort. With effort they can cover up their natural colour and turn green so green, you hardly notice the colour underneath So Turple, a middle sized frog, was ashamed of his purple. He saw other frogs, saw only their amount of green and tried his best to be like them. One Tuesday he was so tired of his efforts around his greenish friends always in need to cover up. He wished he had at least one friend who wouldn’t mind his purple spots. He went out to the pool’s edge to look for another one with a purple spot. He was in for such a surprise! Nearly every frog had another colour showing underneath! The purples and also the blues, the yellows, the reds, they were all shining through, some in big spots, some in small. He decided to dare it: to be all purple next day. Feeling totally exposed he went out leaving all stiffness and effort at home. He noticed frogs in his own home pool he had never seen before - and they noticed him, the purple ones, half purple ones, and all the other colourful ones. He made friends with purple even yellow, blue and red ones; friends who didn’t mind his colour. How good it felt to be able to be your own colour. Who cared about the ones with their green frills, their green make up, their green suits and collars, their green brand names, their green figures their green titles and positions and super green friends their green cars and houses, their green noses and their green smiles! They don’t even know to be your own colour. And he discovered: He didn't like fashion much and - frogs are beautiful people! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHOOKS --------------------------------(G. Mertens, Katoomba 1998)
When you look into the eyes of chooks you understand:
they don't understand
When one finds a seed and picks
the others start picking
when one is itchy and scratches
the others start scratching
when one feels like a sand bath
the others will have one too
It looks so stupid
they just imitate
not caring why Just like us
This year are stripy shirts
in fashion
Last year high heels were in
this year nobody wears it
A few started power walking
now they are thousands
Everybody looks first
what the others do
Nobody seems to have
an own taste and own needs
Like chooks
You look at them
and understand:
they don't understand
Not much brains no personality. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------ (G. Mertens, Katoomba 2002)
how good it feels
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Written after having been the day in Sydney.
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DESSERT 1999 ----------------------(G. Mertens, Katoomba 1999)
Cheese cake today.
I got a natural one
with no artificial flavouring, colouring or preservatives
but only:
Neufchatel cheese
lacid acid bacteria
biscuit crumb
emulsifier 322
antioxidant 306
skim milk powder
thickener 1412,
cornstarch, gelatine,
food acids 270 and 330
vegetable gums (410, 412, 414 and 415)
water added
No artificial colour,
flavours or preservatives.
Yes, I specially looked
that I got a natural one
Somehow a funny aftertaste
probably a bit much of 414.
Cakes are today so complicated
You never know
which number gives the taste
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PLODD’S BIRTH --------------------(G. Mertens, Katoomba 2002)
Plodd looked around
underneath he saw a dark hole
black earth
above he saw the big open sky
blue and white clouds
he turned and saw mountains
dense forest
to one side he saw the sea
to the other he saw grasslands
soft hills
and in front of him
he saw a city
He thought
I have several options:
to go underneath like a mole
grow strong claws to dig
to go high up in the air
grow wings and fly
to walk through the forest
climb on trees
to run through the open grassland
or to buy a car
drive every day to work
and work in one of these offices
He could do anything
everything was open
but he had to decide.
what would you do?
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CICADAS --------------------------------(G.Mertens, Katoomba 1998)
We played music at the wedding:
I will do my best
announced the celebrant
I hope you can all hear me
the cicadas are so loud
And they were loud!
my ears hurt
but strange:
even the softest notes
carried well
every word stood out clearly
as if I had two sets of ears
one was hurting
the other perceived
the softest noise
I never forget
The two never mixed
never interfered
like being two people
with different ears
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BEING RICH --- -------- ------------ -(G. Mertens, Katoomba 1996)
Yesterday I visited this rich bloke
Lives in a mansion
You can't see the house from the road
Talks about money
How much he has to pay
Security cameras everywhere
Full of anxiety
Coming home
I decide
I want to be rich without anxiety
What I want from a rich life:
Having enough
of what I use everyday
and what I 'm always looking for
pencils, rubbers, little spoons
Buying food
without looking at the price
Being able to be generous
and give tips
I guess
it would cost me
twenty, thirty dollars a week more
Yes, I can afford that
And I would like
every day
lots of breaks for cups of tea
focus on doing what I like
And: really do it!
Yes that would be a rich life
I think I can afford that
Better than being insured
shares and worrying
like this poor rich bloke!
The weekend before we had to play music at an Australian food company's annual general meeting. For dinner we were shoved into a litlle room, which had hardly been cleaned up. We found on the table an interesting piece of reading (surely not meant for us to see): a booklet with all the directors present including a photo of each, their duties, brief history and their yearly salaries.
That was 1996. The lowest salary was $100 000.
As a food company most of them were cheerful fellows; they know each other and loved food. These were the ones earning 100 to 300 grands a year. Above this salary the few seemed isolated figures reminding us of a stiff Westpac function the week before.
One person was different; we had noticed him before - he seemed like a stranger among friends: The general manager (salary 1 million plus shares of 3 million). He didn't communicate really to anyone, although everyone was polite to him. He held his legs clasped sitting opposite his ever smiling wife to whom he didn't talk. As far as we could read in his history he knew nothing about food and the industry, but had a past in insurances and several banks. He still belonged to the board of directors of a bank (another big salary we assumed).
We read he had to attend 4 board meetings a year and give a talk there. We imagined he can pay a secretary and some professionals who know more than him to write his speeches and he actually needs to do absolutely nothing. He can even appoint someone to chose who should do what.
There he was, knew nothing, rich, stiff and unhappy, no friends in his own company and had the right to make all wrong decisions with no consequence to him, but a big payout after resiging.
In 2010 the same company made News about cutting the farmers pay for milk by nearly 50%, making the farmers virtually getting broke. And I knew: The decision was made by another ignorant idiot (the "financial" successor of the one we met) who had very likely never even seen a dairy farm, knew absolutely nothing about the industry, but had a sheet of paper in front of him how to save and invest. The decision was probably bad, as bad as the decisions, which drove the US to the financial crisis driven by similar arrogant know nothings. -
____
This is another poem which influenced me, like Turple the purple Frog:
Over the next 2 years I rearranged my activities and got used to ask: what do I enjoy most?
I call it today: semi retirement - doing the things I like.
I also stopped buying cask wine, decided to select good cheese, enjoy quality instead of quantity.
I save lots of time not running around looking for the single rubber in the house; the essential things are now plenty of at many places.
Financially I am still surprised. It virtually didn't make a difference.
As rich as I need to be.
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HAYFEVER -----------------------------(G. Mertens, Bellingen 1988)
The tea is still a bit hot
I sniff my nose
it's hayfever time
This strange disease
when it's coming up
it connects
with feelings of past years
when it was coming up
- impossible to call back
at other times
Annoying nose
forgotten feelings
This weird reason
for this remarkable afternoon
remembering past times
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THE UNIVERSE AND THE GIANT ----------(G.Mertens, Earth 1998)
We believe
our universe is billions of years old
and that it will collapse again
in a big crunch
in some other billions of years
Now imagine:
Our universe
would be just the size of earth
and where the sun is
- you know how far it is to the sun -
there would be another complete universe
- - 0 - - nothing in between
Never any light would make it
from this big banged universe to ours -
too far, too long.
Now let me tell you:
Our universe is actually
only a cell of a giants toe
Every atom of this cell is a galaxy
(the giant knows about the cells)
Our sun system is just a quark
- he is as advanced in knowledge as us
Of course he doesn't know
about trees and us people
or even earth
As for us
and for all what we don’t know:
Tiny forests and people
might live on some of OUR quarks!
Like all giants
this giant renews his toe cells
every thirty billion years
and a giant lives for about
seventy thousand billion years -
We hope he never hurts his toe!
Although -
consequences would happen slowly
This giant lives on a planet
within a solar system
and looks through telescopes
existing of billions of galaxy atoms
You can imagine that the giant's universe
lasts for a very very long time
Probably his universe pulses like ours
from a big bang to the crunch
being quiet for a long time
and then pops again
pulsing
like a seed
the common rhythm of all nature
Comment:
There is no logical reason that anything of the above is not true.
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