Within the river

Within the river

Stands a mighty rock.

Not one inch he would move,

Give way to the river.

With time you see

How much the river

Has moved the mighty rock. 

The tulip

I sleep in a tulip's cup

under his window, waiting

for dawn to unlock.

A peacock is my guard

raising his feathers

when someone comes to pluck

my tulip's golden cup.

salted wounds

when you ask me to suffer
voluntarily i will suffer
when you ask me not to speak

i will be silent
when you ask me to sink
i will reach for the ground
i will stay away from fire
and drown in an ocean
of scattered smiles
unharvested
evaporating into a breeze
that lets the world respire
who am i to raise
above the world's agonies
i will not, can not
i let them pass through
and offer a hand
to support your shoulder
to wipe away tears
to bring you the water
that calms down your fears
my body hurts
but i will learn
to live with salted wounds
and give the balm
to those who require

The edges are blunt

I grow and shrink

In this rotating feeling

Hanging from a ceiling

Inside me a fan

How to switch off the world

Around my restless blades

The edges are blunt

Memories fade

I cut all air in pieces

If this is the purpose

For which I was made

Please switch me off

They know best

You see sparkles

But what you see

Are reflections of light

Reverberating from panes

Of high speed trains

Having passed my doorstep

I had thought out

As entrance without keys

Thieves

Swallowed all moments

Of in between silence

They stole all

My migrating birds

And unlearnt

Their sense of direction

When the world stopped turning

I saw them

Those birds without sense

They need tracks now

I saw them

On seats and in shoes

Without melody

They watch the world through windows

And I wonder

Who is the conductor

Does he draw the maps

He never goes for

Secret little archways

All he sees are tracks

Speeding up the train

What is the speed for

The world is small and round

The only route I know

Follows cycles and seasons

Of heartbeat and rest

Of fire and rain

I cultivate the soil

And throw out the seeds

Let them grow wildly

Without any fence

They know best

What makes a spray worth the harvest

They know best

What makes a field worth the rain

In a room without end

I tricked myself

Only to end up

In a room without end

Could have wandered forever

Convinced to see a wall

But then I remembered

Closed my eyes

And took a step back

All my wandering

Had not taken me further

Than one step

From the door I had left

Days ago

I wonder, how often

Will I have to remember

And take a step back

And the moon became my boat

When the shade of a cloud

Touched my skin

I looked down to earth

And saw myself

In a river of shadow and light

Passing over me

It streamed into a lake and the moon

Became my boat

Carrying all my melodies

Into beautiful morning light

I know the moon can’t swim

But it wouldn’t sink either

let's not play with gravity

if every thing was light

we would fall into space

where no body can breathe

wings without pressure

seeds without ground

no rivers and trees

every thing floating

on currents of dust

all falling apart

into light within darkness

no need 

for love and compassion

forgiveness and grief

let's not play with gravity

things appear to be heavy

they only appear 

so we can learn, love and live

flowers wither, rivers dry,
heat melts all fragile moments
you fly here and there and every second
we could share just passes by

beautiful faces

in essence, who are we

i asked myself so many times

what remains is soulforce 

heading for the sunrise

a heart that beats and sees

sensing it must be east

we all deserve to be 

beautiful faces 

in glowing morning light

a tree's leaf

when I cut a tree’s leaf

to make one flower beneath

shine in brightest light

I forgot that without shade

all colour must wither

all sap must dry

in my selfish deed

I see one flower die

My spirit is just a splinter

My spirit is just a splinter
Just one beat in the world's giant heart
But added with your spirit and all the million others
We push life
Into veins between the stars

the mighty playful water

some things take time 
to let them pass, 
to be a leaf floating on waves
accepting the mighty playful water 
drowns leaves from time to time

Face to face with a tree

When I was a child
I stood face to face with a  tree

He was young and sprouting 

Brim-full with sap

The texture of his leaves

Felt mellow on my skin

I loved his brisk and noble sight

Today he would have outgrown

All of us, wasn't it for someone 

Who chopped him down at night

I sit on his chair and know

I should kneel on the ground

Winter had grown

I sat on the steps to my garden
waiting for nothing. Winter had grown

and covered me in snow. A fine layer 
gleamed on my fingers,
my hair, my chest and my naked toes.

I sat still, listened to trees tinkling
while all birds had headed South. 

After many days and nights,

my heart was frozen too. I didn’t hear a beat, 
my lips were blue, my lashes breaking,

didn’t know, was I dead or still alive.

One afternoon, 
just before the sun set behind the trees, 
a soft breeze rustled through their branches.
It was time for him to come.
He sang to me with a warm and deep voice.
Very close to my ear I heard the sweetest melody,
it captured me. My heart started beating,
a rush of blood danced in my chest,
flooded my fingers, flooded my head.

He kissed my lashes, woke up the trees,

tiny little flowers unfolding in ice, 

sending their scents to my garden's rearmost corners,
awakening beehives with all their fragile strength.

He picked a blossom from a nearby tree, 

very gently, placed it in my hair,

a cherry blossom melted me in sunset
and all my layers of adamantine ice.

Äpfel im Morgentau

Äpfel tropfen noch vom Morgentau, Bäume halten reifen Atem an, während Vögel auf saftigem Astwerk sitzen, das im ständigen Richtungswechsel von Blatt zu Blatt überrundet wird. Ein Kater schläft in der Mulde, stört sich nicht an Läusen, die die Rinde und sich selbst unterhalten.

Und dann rief ich die Krähen, trainierte sie täglich drei Stunden, richtete sie regelrecht ab, mit Krähenfüßen auszuhacken, was im schwarzen Feld vergraben lag. In den Murmeln stecken Fingernägel, beim Spiel gebrochen, die du immer poliert, lackiert, an den Enden so fein geschliffen hast. Auch jetzt noch sind sie sicher vor dem Dreck, der die verlorenen Perlen beschichtet.

Eine Höhle zwischen Wurzeln diente als Versteck. Als ich nachsah, war alles geplündert. Ein Mader, ein Fuchs, vielleicht war’s ein Hund. Nur eine Locke, ein verblasster Schuh und die verwelkte Schleife, die jeden Tag das Haar umstreifte, blieben als Zeugen zurück.

Ich trug sie heim, errichtete einen Tempel, dem Gott der Glasperlen zu Ehren, opferte Haar und Seidenschuh. Was jetzt noch bleibt, ist die Schleife, sie hängt neben dem Kater im Geäst, und es bleibt der Baum, der alles trägt, was wir ihm vorgetragen haben, als die Welt schlief und Äpfel im Morgentau reiften.

learn what it means

why worry so much

about falling houses

it’s time for them

above my left eye

I open a door

for sloughs and tadpoles

swampy grassland

growing in headrooms

spreading with damp

it’s too wet

to make a fire

let’s come together

and learn

what it means to

warm up hand by hand

When all houses are debris

I must go to the streets
and protest
against houses breaking down,
and stars being buried

I thank every bird
who picks a fallen star
and brings it back to sky

every star holds a wish,
hell they don’t!

but one day
when all is in debris
stars are all that’s left
to look up to,
don’t bury them with houses

To find what you have buried

There will always be
Stars in my sky

Doesn’t matter whether they have 
Fallen into dark lakes

Or yielded fields of rye

Don’t hide them too deep

Else birds must cease to fly

I will turn around

Every piece of debris

To find what you have buried

So birds can pick them

Like worms to feed their fledglings

Please don’t ask me why

I have this eerie feeling

Without stars there won’t be sky

We do not get thirsty unless we do not drink.