Monday 19 August 2013

Another poem from Klaus Høeck's 'Live'


                  stone


                  i admit it it’s
completely way out to drive
                  all the way out to
                  hampen to write this
poem – but that’s what i’ve done
                  and now i’m standing
                  in a field where i’m
kicking at stones partly to
                  discourage festi
                  val poetry and
partly to pay my homage
                  to dr johnson

                  i scrutinise the
stones carefully how beauti
                  ful they really are
                  each one of them re
markable in some way or
                  other – one with a
                  medal ribbon di
agonally across its
                  surface another
                  with an axe blow from
the stone age finally i
                  pick up a flintstone

                  i let go of the
stone it falls to the ground – so
                  simple it is the
                  rest is twaddle a
load of codswallop or sim
                  ply stuff and nonsense
                  at best habit or
a matter of faith i get
                  into the car once
                  again and drive back
while you are reading this po
                  em as a fact now


(The expression 'ude i hampen' in danish means 'way out, far out, beyond credibility'. Opinions are divided as to its origin (see here). but it is a location slap bang in the middle of Jutland, and Klaus Høeck visits all sorts of places in Denmark in the course of his latest collection.)

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