ARTISAN OF WORDS


I am an artisan of words
Which I sculpt, chisel and fashion the way I can;
I am a creator of worlds;
I pour my emotion into the poems I write.
I breathe life into them, blow them skywards
And finish them only when they sound right.

These remnants of thought without reason
Will remain on pages season after season
Long after I'm gone; when my task is done
The love, the longing, the pain
Will be evoked then by somebody else
Who in turn will remember and write again
To create another slow soft song
That people can read and draw into their hearts
Then pillowed by words, cushioned by dreams
My poems will ride high the moonbeams.



Copyright: Rani Turton 2007


Saturday, January 31, 2009

Le Chômeur et Sa Guitare: Poem






Jérome Iber


Nous avons appris le décès de Jérôme par sa mère. Nous sommes trés touchés pas cette nouvelle. C'était donc son dernier été, jouant de la guitare avec ce talent, sous le soleil. Que son âme repose en paix.

Suit un poème écrit par sa maman:

Le Chômeur et Sa Guitare
.
Sous la voûte du ciel étoilé
Son bon coeur est par la nuit étouffé
Seul, solidaire plein d'amertume, sans illusions
Il cherche dans l'ombre à chanter ses chansons
Ho, sa guitare ! Son amie, sa seule joie
Accompagne en sourdine son désarroi
Sonne, sonne sa guitare ! Toi qui ignore sa poisse
Que ta mélodie résonne, pour étouffer son angoisse
Tu es la seule chose qui actuellement remplace
L'amour, l'emploi que la recherche à force l'agace
Car il a beau se précipiter et écrire aux offres d'emploi
La réponse est toujours pareille chaque fois
Avons bien noté votre adresse, nous vous écrirons
Mais la réponse espérée, jamais nous la recevons
Aujourd'hui, il n'a plus besoin de chercher du travail
Il est parti en me laissant en larmes
Si seulement il avait joué son flamenco
Au liu de partir chez les gadjos
Parler, moi de lui j'ai besoin d'entendre son prénom
Alors ne détournez pas la conversation
Je ne serai jamais guérie
Il n'y a pas de remède contre cette maladie
Maladie qui s'appelle chagrin
Et qui est devenu mon destin

LA MAMAN DE JEROME

copyright: la maman de Jérôme



We learnt about Jérome's death from his mother. We were very saddened by this news, and touched that she wrote to tell us about it. That was his last summer, then, playing his guitar with such talent, under the sun. May his soul rest in peace.

http://ranishobha.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

The Man Without Work And His Guitar

(translation from the French by Rani Turton)

Under the vault of the starry sky
His gentle heart is by the night suffocated
Alone, all alone full of bitterness, without illusions
He looks in the shadows to sing his songs
Ho, his guitar! His friend, his only joy
Accompanies on the quiet his confusion
Sound, sound his guitar! You who ignores his misfortune
Let your melody resound, to suppress his fear
You are the only thing which at present replaces
The love, the work that searching for exhausted
Because he may hurry and write for job offers
The answer is still the same every time
Noted well your address, we shall write
But the hoped –for answer, we never received
Today, he does not need to look for work anymore
He left leaving me in tears
If only he had played his flamenco
Instead of leaving for the gadjos
Speak to me of him I need to hear his name
Then do not divert the conversation
I shall never be cured
There is no remedy against this disease
Disease which is called despair
And which has become my destiny



JÉROME’S MOTHER
Copyright: Jerome’s Mother

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hail to the snail


This bright snail decided to climb a fence just to see what lay the other side. Maybe it would been easier just to crawl under? Sweet little creature!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Martin Luther King's Day

Martin Luther King's Day

Life comes full circle.
All of your battles have not been in vain.
The man with the heart of a sixty year old, worn out by passion
Struggle and rhetoric
Today you live on, in another epoch.

Of all nations and races
Take this time to remember
How to live with your neighbour
Build another legend, build another story
The history-in-the-making time has come around.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Mysteries: Poem



Mysteries

There is a mystery in living
When, how, for how long and why
No need to use complicated rhetorical arguments
The devil's advocate I can play indeed
But the end is always the same
Its almost as if our lifespans are a timed game

We can hop from land to land
For reasons only we can understand
We can lament and weep
Until at the end we finally sleep

To sleep perchance to dream
As a great poet once wrote
In lifespans, life's cycles, in moments of oblivion
I even forgot all that I wrote
The great mystery was not action or living
The great question was extinction and annihilation
To come back to the essential
I, Me and Myself
My small insignificant life
Could I even presume to be remembered
After the third generation, the fourth maybe?
And what was it's essentiality?
Wicks flame, flicker and glow
That is finally the way I will go.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Friday, January 9, 2009

Tree in the Wind: Poem

Tree in the Wind
.
Buffeted by the wind, tossing and turning
Recklessly striving to hold ground
Existing, resisting, persisting:
The choice is to stand tall
Or fall.

Copyright: Rani Turton