Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category
October 6, 2017
“Mist or pollution?” I ask
crossing the murky morning bridge.
My friend shrugs. “Both.”
Cross the bridge or not – we’re a part of it.
Surrounded by it. Inhaling it.
Everyday the same crossing,
misted and obscured.
The students ahead disappear.
Mask up or change your routine.
Why the trepidation?
It’s a part of you all the same.
The motions. The breaths in and out.
This crossing and the rituals before and after.
Cross the bridge – You already have
put feet all over it and joined the mist.
“Too early for all that,” she says
reading my mind. “Cross or not,
you’ve crossed it all the same.”
AJG
Some thoughts while crossing the bridge to class in the morning.
Posted in China, Photopoetics, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged aaron goldsmith, AJG, China, goldbot, Jimei, photography, Photopoetics, poems, poetry, Xiamen | Leave a Comment »
October 2, 2017
Just a moment.
Take a break right here to break it.
Shatter it, in fact. Sweep it up,
grind it to dust underfoot and blow it
into the path of an oncoming car.
Watch it swirl up, twist past my face
then disappear without even a wince.
It’s not real like glass or crystal, right?
Not something you need to replace.
Just break it and make another.
Like we’ve done to so much else.
No one will look back at this and pause
wasting more precious time.
Walk on or wait up for me.
Look back or don’t. Ain’t much to see.
I’m just standing, not caught up in anything.
Staring down the reflections.
A moment. That is all I need.
Goldbot
Posted in China, Photopoetics, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged aaron goldsmith, China, goldbot, just a moment, poem, poetry | Leave a Comment »
September 29, 2017
Ride the zebra across.
Blur your pasts and futures into the present.
We barely recognise those next to us.
I know you, but not this street or its language of
hashed lines and dashes. I came here sure of reasons,
uncertain of consequences. Like you, perhaps.
Is that something we keep
as our faces distort in each other’s stride?
The crossing here’s risky. No looking. No help anyway:
All the signs and symbols are meaningless.
Don’t look down and if you don’t stumble
don’t smile yet – It’ll come. Just move forward.
Keep going. Don’t stop moving towards something.
Don’t look back or you’ll never escape,
if that was your reason for crossing.
Just look straight if you had a reason
for moving forward at all.
_____________________________
Goldbot – Xiamen 2015.
A poem and photograph from a Photo/Poetry project in Xiamen, China.
Picture courtesy of Asaka a local photographer from Xiamen.
Posted in China, Photopoetics, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, China, goldbot, Immigration, photography, Photopoetics, poems, poetry, Xiamen | Leave a Comment »
September 28, 2017
The roofs slope the same way
sliding up like ski ramps to the sky.
Old and new. Older and newer.
Their same ambitions and fates
like that of everything’s. Just conditional.
No comment on progress or decay or rebirth.
All is one thing in another form.
Who cares to remember? Nostalgia
is the present disease of the past.
Keep aiming up and looking that way
keep no foot on the rubble of our memories.
They are no foundations for the future.
Just features for photos on Sunday afternoons.
Like clouds, they are what you say they are.
Think no more of them and look for meanings
only in the pillows of smog above us.
1/10/2015 – Taken in Jimei, Xiamen, China.
Been a long time to share my poetry on this blog…mostly since I have lived in China…though I still have words written and stories to tell, I will start sharing some more and reading yours. Goldbot.
Posted in China, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged aaron goldsmith, China, Clouds, goldbot, Progress, travel, Xiamen | Leave a Comment »
October 1, 2015
Boredom.
Filled the kettle but forgot to turn it on.
Forgot I was even making tea.
*
Confusion
So many languages half learnt. Even my own.
Still trying to find the right words.
*
Laziness
All the things waiting on my bed and sofa.
I just keep sitting.
*
AJG
Posted in China, From the blogger, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, bloodwords, boredom, China, daily reports, Laziness, poetry, Sitting, Xiamen | Leave a Comment »
September 24, 2015
Electric kettle was on all night
now the tea tastes like metal.
Add some extra sugar.
Computer won’t charge
so now I’m on my phone
staring through a tiny window to the world.
Back’s sore from yesterday-
it’ll need a stretch.
Lost my key, but a new one’s just a dollar.
Looking around I realise
there’s a solution to all my problems.
Keep searching.
One day I’ll find something
that I just can’t fix.
*
AJG – 13/04/15
Posted in China, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, bloodwords, China, poem, poetry, The fixer | Leave a Comment »
September 23, 2015
A long time in between posts. Been settling into another country and compiling my poetry from Central America/Thailand/Japan into a collection. I am going to start up my daily poetic reports from my new home in China.
Here are some from 09/04/15…back in April!
______________________________________________
The eleven foot curtain heaves against the desk.
It puffs out its chest as much as I’d like to.
I take a deep breathe but it falls short or shallow
one of those, either way not enough. Less than I’d like.
More than I need. Less than I want and can get.
More than I deserve, I suppose. Probably like that
for all of us and everything.
_______________________________________
Want to go out but
no one to talk to and nowhere to go
forced back to writing.
________________________________________
Leaning over the railing six floors up
leaves hold palms up to catch me
so tempted just to see how they’d feel
and the fullness of the air as well
breezing as I flew past
too excited I have to pull back
forgetting the ground
_______________
AJG
Posted in China, From the blogger, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, bloodwords, China, goldbot, poetry, reports, Xiamen | Leave a Comment »
January 15, 2015
Blue skies from sci-fi epics.
Clouds stationary battleships
no attacks in sight.
The sun a bathing god
reclining in all its power.
Absorb its light and ride along
neck bent to witness it all.
The story has just begun.
Bubbles rise up inside
bursting and popping excitedly
as I realise
I am a part of this all.
*
AJG
Posted in Beside the Nagara, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, AJG, beautiful, Earth, fantasy, Japan, life, poem, poetry, sci-fi, sky | Leave a Comment »
November 13, 2014
Bus trip, shower and shave.
The night is paved with possibilities.
Jeepneys march on and taxis prowl.
Rum and wine are poured.
A breeze brushes hair
the humidity is moved along unwillingly.
It’ll be back but tonight we have reprieve.
With only hours left and the only relief
for our expectations is to leave everything here
money, courtesy, friends, foes, ladyboys,
nightcrawlers, dignity and memories,
Manila, they’re yours.
*
AJG
Posted in Beside the Nagara, Poetry | Tagged aaron goldsmith, bloodwords, goldbot, ladyboy, manila, money, night life, philippines, poem, poetry, travel | Leave a Comment »
October 23, 2014
The history is told translated in brochures.
Castle walls reconstructed. Insides redesigned.
The old foreman Murasawa retained.
He looks across, a face of anger or agony
scabbard lofted defiantly impotent
frozen in brass.
The war in Osaka is a thousand years done.
So too is the urgency. Sandbags heaped
waiting for workers who heed no whip.
Whose motivation holds only
by spiderweb threads of duty
they can neither see or explain but
are helpless not to be pulled along by.
They take pride in the deeds of the dead.
Of those in graves that might have been their own
if there were any noble wars or ever were.
The only fight left is to keep the memory alive
that their ancestors had greatness.
Cup this candle with their hands
so that somewhere down the line of their kin
this spark may ignite once more.
*
AJG
Posted in Beside the Nagara, Poetry, Poetry Projects | Tagged aaron goldsmith, bloodwords, Castle, culture, defiant, goldbot, Guardians, history, Japan, memories, Nagoya, Osaka, poem, poetry | Leave a Comment »