Two poems by Iain
Unendliche Kette
It was going to be difficult
The second time round
(But Goethe's got it wrong)
Then - we were
Each to another
Switches, keys, mediums,
That stretched us back
Achingly to
The What Had Been
Of our silent, sunlit, several movies
Long gone.
And now?
We are who we are
Undeniably adult,
Anständige Leut'
Rounded lives
From Berlin to Belfast
Partnered and not
Wir verstehen uns gut.
Those one-time adolescents
Are leaving the stage,
They are going,
They are fading...
Hold on.
They must not go.
Call them back
To hold onto the same thread,
However worn it’s got
We need them,
Get them to follow us,
Wherever, however.
Unlike Orpheus
Do glance back
To them behind us,
To who we were.
Do not forget them
Hold on.
Freundlich !
If you look closely
You can see that
There is some divergence of opinion
(That isn't easily explained
By sex or nationality)
On where we should be looking
Although I'd plump for
Downstage left -
They seem to have glanced
On a meaning,
A concurrence of things,
That fits the pattern,
The shape of what is what
And as for the others?
Distracted momentarily?
Or have they seen the same ange
Re-fract-or-ily,
Qui est passé sur le champs
Out of time
To reassure, to reaffirm
The randomness, the differences
Of us all together?
Na und, it's the moment
That counts -
Verweile doch
Du bist so schön
Whichever way you look.
Iain Mitchell September 2002
