Knight

 

Like a knight of some old-fashioned book

I came to you from a remote country

I used words 

you never heard before

and you smiled

to make me understand

that you did not understand me

I had lived a life

where songs were finished in a sob

and I had remained 

a passer-by in the eyes of God

I had wandered too long

in landscapes 

of impossible loves

Beloved

I knew it 

long before I came 

life is but an endless poem

a noteless song

on the lips of a mute beggar

the streets used to recite 

some kind of prayer in the dark

way before I realized

that I was mortal

I feel like an old knight

Spanish by descent

and deprived of his windmills

and if I smile at you

the world will know a new dawn

even if you do not smile back

and  tell me abruptly

that a am too well-known

a stranger

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

New Life

Today at noon

butterflies came back

waltzing with daffodils

and daisies

on the lawn

there is a new melody 

in the air

packed with birds

chirping

and far away songs

of unknown insects

the snowy shroud of Winter

is exiled 

on mountain tops

and hope

is springing back

in rosebuds

and shy lizards

basking 

in the sun

a thousand-faced crowd

is peeping

through death

looking for 

a new life

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

Dreaming awake

Dreaming awake

I visited lots of places

and came back unaware

of the subtleties of memories

Friends tried to convert me

to their private heresies

and left 

when they realized

that I had my own salvation planned

in a bundle of prayers 

and intercessions

Spring came yesterday

a daisy storm on the lawn

and a lighter shade of blue

in the morning sky

I defined every single item

of my broken life

I am free

and I belong here

Here where sparrows 

act like angels

silently invading 

the praying hands of the trees

that have worn 

their gloves of buds and flowers

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

Exile/流亡

With all your hopes gone

you can stop moaning

and live on

the mere logic of days and night

will become your liturgy

until you enter

the tomb of time

no words can soothe your pain

the minute you realize

that you are not everlasting

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

The soul of my dreams

The soul of my dreams

boarded my nights

towards the soft evening

of a distant ocean

books read

whose authors I loved or hated

have covered the beaches

with unforeseen tides

the garden of delights

matured its fruit

under the blonde sun

of my fancy

on a friendly bank

and up there

 in the sky

as a moving lighthouse

filled with sweet music

a lark suddenly melted

in a blue cloud

and it never came back

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

Fake

In a world of make believe

your surprised your foes

by accepting them

for what they pretended to be

you let them imagine

that their uselessness

was but an important ornament

of their petty lives

masking their void

with a garment of mist

they smiled at you

satisfied with your complacency

and flattered by your acceptance

and you left then happy

for no reason at all

in your gardens you sometimes have

a bindweed that imagines

that it is a rose

Claude Lopez-Ginisty

Exil/Exile/流亡

You never gave me any reason

to give up the sweet harmony

of words and thoughts and tears

let my eyes water

the landscapes I love

and the dark places I fear

take a break

from the unforgettable plans

that were to change your life 

into a social nightmare

and an acceptable ordeal

in the heart of silence

an immense hope has come up

denying all kinds of dawns

and pressing your soul to accept

the meaningful fate of roses

you then defined all deaths

because in your wisdom

you see a light

that overcomes all your petty darkness

Claude Lopez-Ginisty