And the Communists have nothing to offer but fat cheeks and eyeglasses and
lying policemen
and the Capitalists proffer Napalm and money in green suitcases to the
Naked,
and the Communists create heavy industry but the heart is also heavy
and the beautiful engineers are all dead, the secret technicians conspire for
their own glamour
in the Future, in the Future, but now drink vodka and lament the Security
Forces,
and the Capitalists drink gin and whiskey on airplanes but let Indian brown
millions starve
and when Communist and Capitalist assholes tangle the Just man is arrested
or robbed or has his head cut off,
but not like Kabir, and the cigarette cough of the Just man above the clouds
in the bright sunshine is a salute to the health of the blue sky.
For I was arrested thrice in Prague, once for singing drunk on Narodni
street,
once knocked down on the midnight pavement by a mustached agent who
screamed out BOUZERANT,
once for losing my notebooks of unusual sex politics dream opinions,
and I was sent from Havana by planes by detectives in green uniform,
and I was sent from Prague by plane by detectives in Czechoslovakian
business suits,
Cardplayers out of Cezanne, the two strange dolls that entered Joseph K’s
room at morn
also entered mine and ate at my table, and examined my scribbles,
and followed me night and morn from the houses of the lovers to the cafes of
Centrum –
And I am the King of May, which is the power of sexual youth,
and I am the King of May, which is long hair of Adam and Beard of my
own body
and I am the King of May, which is Kraj Majales in the Czechoslovakian
tongue,
and I am the King of May, which is old Human poesy, and 100,000 people
chose my name,
and I am the King of May, and in a few minutes I will land at London
Airport,
and I am the King of May, naturally, for I am of Slavic parentage and a
Buddhist Jew
who whorships the Sacred Heart of Christ the blue body of Krishna the
straight back of Ram
the beads of Chango the Nigerian singing Shiva Shiva in a manner which
I have invented,
and the King of May is a middleeuropean honor, mine in the XX century
despite space ships and the Time Machine, because I have heard the voice of Blake
in a vision
and repeat that voice. And I am the King of May that sleeps with teenagers
laughing.
And I am the King of May, that I may be expelled from my Kingdom with
Honor, as of old,
To show the difference between Caesar’s Kingdom and the Kingdom of the
May of Man –
and I am the King of May because I touched my finger to my forehead
saluting
a luminous heavy girl trembling hands who said “one moment Mr. Ginsberg”
before a fat young Plainclothesman stepped between our bodies – I was
going to England –
and I am the King of May, in a giant jetplane touching Albion’s airfield
trembling in fear
as the plane roars to a landing on the gray concrete, shakes & expels air,
and rolls slowly to a stop under the clouds with part of blue heaven still
visible.
And tho’ I am the King of May, the Marxists have beat me upon the street,
kept me up all night in Police Station, followed me thru Springtime
Prague, detained me in secret and deported me from our kingdom by
airplane.
This I have written this poem on a jet seat in mid Heaven.
A few random poems:
- A Crimson Carpet by Pamela Griffiths
- The Dance At Darmstadt poem – Alfred Austin
- VOICES by Satish Verma
- The Kiss — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- An Evening Walk by William Wordsworth
- Sappho Redivivus: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Ольга Берггольц – А помнишь
- Against Unworthy Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep by William Shakespeare
- The Ballad Of Father Gilligan by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Маяковский – Заграничная штучка
- Who Learns My Lesson Complete? by Walt Whitman
- Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Любить
- Dear Alzheimer’s by Maria Knox
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Time’s Defence poem – Alfred Austin
- Through Liberty To Light poem – Alfred Austin
- Three Sonnets Written In Mid-Channel poem – Alfred Austin
- Though All The World poem – Alfred Austin
- The Wind Speaks poem – Alfred Austin
- The White Pall Of Peace poem – Alfred Austin
- The Spring-Time, O The Spring–Time poem – Alfred Austin
- “`The smiling slopes with olive groves bedecked” poem – Alfred Austin
- The Silent Muse poem – Alfred Austin
- The Season poem – Alfred Austin
- The Reply Of Q. Horatius Flaccus To A Roman “Round-Robin” poem – Alfred Austin
- The Poet And The Muse poem – Alfred Austin
- The Passing Of The Primroses poem – Alfred Austin
- The Passing Of The Century poem – Alfred Austin
- The Passing Of Spring poem – Alfred Austin
- The Owl And The Lark poem – Alfred Austin
- The Old Land And The Young Land poem – Alfred Austin
- The Lover’s Song poem – Alfred Austin
- The Last Redoubt poem – Alfred Austin
- “The lark confinèd in his cage” poem – Alfred Austin
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
