20170317

Louise Landes Levi


after the MAN'YOSHU, The 10,000 Leaves

at the scintillating edge, where yr. dark hairs meet mine on the altar of supreme sacrifice & did we make it in the leaves, the Ardennes, never had it so good, so good to know you, or was it? what intoxicant in your dark hair, or in your gaze? perceived in its entirety. I am confounded by error, wishing you wld, talk to me/ Fear & subterfuge, the spying nations get to us/ they can spy the shit out of me & still not know my name, out here, wishing I knew you better, I know you well enough to know you'd hate this place, I keep my feelings to myself, but everyone knows that I’m still alone on this green night green walls in the Riggim Cafe, somethin goin on, wish I cld. just sleep out here. hate the way the city closes down, at 12. 12 she said was the number of samsara, Does she know, even have any idea what she's talking about, I wrote abt. overtones you'd think I was patenting a curse, I had to leave the circle. but I never left YOU. Nishi Ogikubo Tokyo 2017 II MY CONCUBINES's REFUGE IT's up in arms, but whose, & what kind, the kind used to kill lady bugs & all else, or the wooden ones on the 1000 Buddhas in the Sanjusangendo, I cldn't figure out if the only female protector was referred to as IT because the curators didn't know English l or because her gender was somehow criminal enough to be con- cealed. like mine it's the end of an era, I heard those words before, INSTANTANEOUS FIRE in the mind. in the forest, of emotion, IT was OK if I played, but if I spoke... I'm sorry she said mental illness the verdict of the straighter edge, Again the walls of my concubine's refuge for whose recital here at the edge, of the cliff & I wish it hadn't happened, in this way. Nishi Ogikubo Tokyo 2017 for Nick Cave + ONE IT was a hard day, then a hard night, you had a friend or two, but no where near, & what abt. that etheric dance hall, where moonlight fell in circles on yr /transparent. shoulders, the water fell before you, never tested for isotopes or cessium, but you didn't drink Herbs were pro- tecting you, those fr. the garden of the extinct, a loving hand handed you The Water Mirror late one night, you wanted to hear him play acoustic guitar, more than anything he thought you wanted to fuck him, in secret, in secret texts, the mystery of these things revealed, a syllabic speech, extracted fr. the Sidham, you learned it instantaneous, then they threw you out (of the cafe), an old story, very old, he said you were too old , I said nothing, but sat for days & nights w. my bow & rosin, fr. whose tree, the bliss extinguished, as I gazed out, gazed out, at the radioactive streets & the umbrellas, held, so far fr. Utamaro, so close, to home. Chiyoda/ Tokyo 2017 sidham - an old form of Sanskrit on which the Hiragana, modern Ja- panese alphabet is based.



Louise Landes Levi:  born in NYC,  musician-poet 
  translator & traveller. She edits small press Il Begatto 
   — forthcoming CRAZY LOUISE or La Conversazione
       Sacra, Station Hill, NY  & Where I Stand In Angel,
      Il Begatto and LP Beauteous Being, w. Audio-MER.
 
 
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