Proxy Invitation (To Mephistophelis): A Poem By This Faust

 

Upon Being Given My Choice Of Gift:

(& Presented With Two Rare Editions Of Goethe's Faust)

Often when we want to show our love's Extant

And of course also do preserve our own selves well 

When we aim wisely we care not so much how money's spent

As we do to preserve our freedoms well as we can tell

And so the rarer items We come to think show more

(The more uncommon things we think are better),

But what we think the symbols chosen – for –

May turn out to be far too much like debt or debtor

So I ask that you consider a different kind of present

And if you wish it not or wish it also that is fine

In that case from the pool of choices you present 

From which you'd have me choose, the first edition's mine

But far away what I would fancy most, consider, please:

On some occasions – for a few conversations – be my Mephistopheles

Waiting For You - an exercise in verse

 

To The Swan: A Poem Without Poetry

(Or, Get Well Soon, Please, Thank You) 

To The Swan: Get Well Soon,

(a poem without poetry, hopefully a fragment)

by johanna Faust

i want to write a sonnet gleaming 

but heart in my mouth, i keep holding my breath

it has been so hard for me, to do any good thinking

hard for me to breathe, to get breath

excuse me, hard for who?

um, me, um, i am breathing fine actually, that was, um

meant as a metaphor.  seems a bit out of touch

the meaning when literal,  seems apt, not so much

when its literal you stay in touch 

with the anchors to this world in the here now beauty

where you feel sick & feel happy & laugh & cry

feel tired and weak & i hope not often, alone

i hope someone is there with me

like i want to be there for you

i hope that someone could even possibly be

because then you’d still be around, even you

machines beepingly dripping, they keep my friend breathing

they keep his heart beating as he is reading my verse.