DHS Writings
From Novel J’s
(poem ascribed to the Frenchman, Jean-Claude, l970, Translated 2019)
Je ne comprends rien…cette vie.
En effet, il n’y a aucune chose
que je comprends. Rien.
C’est seulement…
rien.
DARKNESS: AN ODE TO INDEPENDENCE
(1970, from Novel J’s)
Oblique setting
sun caressing my shoulders,
legs, crossed yoga-style,
sitting on the hard dirt.
Freely rooted?
From Novel J’s
(poem ascribed to the Frenchman, Jean-Claude, l970, Translated 2019)
Seul?
Qui, je suis seul,..mais,il n’y a
aucun difference entre moi et
les autres
Tout le monde nait seul, meurt seul.
Mais il y a des amis, comme toi.
Tu viens et nous partageons
le pain et le vin
Puis, bien que nous soyons seul, nous ne
sommes pas
solitaires.
The Path
by D Shapiro
The broken pine needles irritated his feet where the leather sandals had worn through and he found it necessary to stop and pull out a splinter. He decided it was necessary to take a short rest and he messaged his swollen feet.
Cults, The Occult, and Science
by D Shapiro
Imagine, for a moment, that you have the opportunity to enter a vast, open-air amphitheatre, in which a huge, extraordinary carnival is taking place. All the usual signs of a carnival are there—multi-colored motion, balloons, confetti, large crowds, costumed individuals, musicians, whirling dancers. And, standing in front of several different side-show tents, are the old carnival barkers, trying to entice the crowd to enter their tent.
- Thanks to Ellen McGrath, Ph.D. for her comments on a previous draft.
- Ellen McGrath: “Balanced and powerful…“
- Johanna: “You are wrestling with the tension between seeing that science does not have all the answers, while avoiding the seduction of cultish beliefs. It is really well-written“
In All Seriousness
by D. Shapiro and J. Shapiro
In All Seriousness (1976)
Supplement A (40 years later)
Supplement B
German poem: Feeling Thence to Nowhere
(Herfliehend ins Nirgends) written at 23. Translated in 2018 by Jacob C. Schaubs and Xuxu Song
Fleeing thence to Nowhere
The pastor stepped slowly into the night,
From the high mountain looking out
Faces of people lying
On the earth, screaming in pain.
Johanna’s comment: Thanksgiving, 2018 Your existential phase captured:
in German, yet. The poem feels – heavy, dark without respite, existential despair, the end of faith, unrelieved darkness. Good job capturing the grim, never-ending blackness….:) (nice to be able to write this from nearly 50 years later!!)
A Man Reaches Toward the Sky
The man looks towards the gray sky.
Reaching his hand out towards…
Money, connection, hope, help?
But all he grasps is
The nothingness…
And as he holds it tightly
it starts to squirm…