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2005
Poetry
by Arden Benson
Arden
shares his poetry with Eastrose, and through our website, the world.
If
you wish to quote his poertry, please read the statement at the bottom
of this page.
January 2005
SWAN POND
There are beings out there.
We cannot see them.
They swim in the upper reaches
Of the air.
They are Swans.
Gigantic, almost invisible,
Almost intangible,
Swans.
They swim, up there.
Space travellers do not report them,
For if they did,
They themselves would be reported.
Perhaps the ancient people
Caught glimpses:
A swan's graceful neck and head
Became Draco.
Orien, then, was poised to slay one,
And roast it in the fiery
furnace
Of the sun.
But we, today, are wiser.
Therefore we cannot see
The Swans,
Or any other living creatures
Out there.
Arden Benson
January
11, 2004
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February 2005
POND
FISH
Down here, in what we humans
Call the air,
There are fish.
Fish that would look like dragons
If we could see them.
They are the food of the Swans
Of the upper air.
A dog barks furiously!
Dogs can see those fish,
Those dragons.
We humans cannot see them
Any more.
Arden Benson
January 18, 2005
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March 2005
A STORY WITHIN
I saw the sun come up
Before the sun came up.
So I knew:
I was in the Garden -- Jurgen's garden --
The Garden between Dawn and Sunrise.
The indescribably lovely Dorothy
Dwelt there, and Jurgen loved her.
But let us forget that Jurgen,
And sing instead of Arden --
(Where is my lute?)
There, in the Garden, dwells Dorothy
(Not her real name),
Unbearably lovely--
Surprisingly agile!
She keeps ahead of the plowman,
The one who plows the Garden
Into neat rows of corn and wheat.
I cannot keep up.
"Farewell," I call. And yet,
She and I might meet again, anon,
In that other Garden,
The one between the moon
And the stars.
Arden Benson
March 24, 2005
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April 2005
OWED TO A HEARING-AID
"Poor hearing is good medicine,"
Said Thomas Alva Edison.
"It helps me to avoid the noise
Of barking dogs (and girls and boys),
When I am cogitating curiously,
Or else experimenting furiously."
Ah, if that man had lived today,
We also might have heard him say,
"God bless the hearing-aid! With it turned
on,
I know if guests are here, or gone.
(I time my entrances and exits
According to my glees or vexes.)
"Or, if I want some peace and quiet,
I switch it Off. You should try it!
It's wonderful. I give three cheers
For this improvement to our ears.
"Next to the light-bulb, I would mention
This as the Most Important Invention."
Arden R. Benson
April 24, 2005
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How I Wrote a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CARD
With a little help from the Muses:
I started by writing,
With some lip-biting,
"This is the Anniversary of your birth,"
Then Thalia said, "A day of mirth
Is ordered. To be quite worth-while
Your Birthday Card must make her smile."
Erato shouted, "No! Stack those decks!
Your Birthday Card must feature Sex!"
But Clio, e'er the voice of reason,
Told me, "You are past your warmest season.
So knock it off. (I beg your pardon.)
In your message, just be Arden."
I wrote, "Please be happy, now and every day.
(But if you aren't, I will love you anyway.)"
Arden |
QUANTA PHENOMENA
I am an electron in the molecule of the world.
I spin, I spin -- in orbit I am whirled --
'Round the nucleus, I know not why;
Without that bond, where would I fly?
I find that, in this absurdist race,
I can exist in more than one place.
(Two? Or ten? An infinite
number?
Zero? Or would that be a slumber?)
If I am sent to follow a path,
I enter the very most difficult math.
I disappear, and then I return.
Where have I been? No-one can learn.
How long was I gone? Just one nanosecond --
Then back to this physical realm I was beckoned.
(Or maybe an aeon, for some will insist
That Time, which we measure, does not exist.)
I have a dear friend, she's my alter-ego.
If I go, or she goes, you could say that "We go."
If I shift in my orbit, as part of a curious
game,
She, at that instant, does exactly the same.
Or else she does not. We are "human", you
know.
If one of us "Stops", the other might "Go".
(a) We do love one
another.
(b) One of us loves
the other.
(c) It is a much
quieter emotion.
(d) There is really
no such notion.
Those statements, all of them, are True
And False, just as the color Red is Blue.
Common sense flies from every room,
And we of this world face a curious doom.
When everything is said and done,
The matrices of Quanta
Have won.
Arden Benson
August 6, 2005
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| D O O R S
Evidently,
I had misled myself.
Erato, I thought,
Had opened up the door
To "her".
No harm in that, I thought,
That love-object, that mortal woman,
Might respond, might rejoice!
Or, she might not.
Then . . . well . . .
That's life .
And Erato leaves
Through her revolving door.
Unhappily, however, it was
Aphrodite herself (not Erato) --
The Goddess (not the Muse) --
Who led me there.
And when She shuts the door,
That's death.
Arden Benson
September 2005
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HALLOWE'EN
I like Hallowe'en! It's keen.
You get to walk out in the street
Dressed up neat.
And you ring the bell, and yell,
"Trick or Treat!"
(I was Darth Vader, the Invader.)
Two girls were Dorothy
And the Wicked Witch of the West.
I liked that the best.
But one guy was Count Dracula,
The Vampire.
His teeth were red like fire.
The girl had a low-cut dress,
And red on her throat
And on her coat.
I went the other way.
But people gave them candy
Anyway.
Arden 10-30-2005
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