Poetry Blog by jan oskar hansen

Appointment

I have unfolded my poetic wings

they have no feathers and the downdrafts

makes it impossible to soar

Tomorrow the doctor will see me, I have to walk

on a treadmill, just like Oscar Wilde

he wrote a book about it, I’m more modest

perhaps I can get an alternative poem out of the test.

I fear my doctor he has got cold hand and looks at me with distaste.

Wha...

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A River

 It is a river in the middle of the landscape

not a famous river it has no university buildings

and it doesn`t appear in ancient books.

In winters it froze up in spring it was deep to

cold to swim in, in summers for a short while

It was a place to go bathing, and then it became

 too shallow, a yellowish dribble not fit for

anything but drinking water for sheep.

A...

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ducks

It was an early Sunday morning in June

A man I a rowing boat stealing ducks in the lake,

 who thought he was there to feed them,

bagged two before the others got the message,

this was not a nice man with a bag of breadcrumbs.

Two mighty swans didn`t like this they swam to

the boat pulled the man out and held him under

the water till he stopped struggling.

Empty row...

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Madness

 Stood by the window, saw a man with a cane, walking

down the road, I waited for him to return waited all day long

till I was so hungry that I rushed into the kitchen

grabbed an apple and continued my vigil waiting for

the man with a cane to return. Darkness comes the road has

no light I had a flashlight to lit up part of the road 

should I hear some noise? Two in the ...

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The Failure

When I was bored with sea life

and walked ashore in Santiago

I could find no work except in house of ill repute

throwing out the rebellious and for some reason

became a father confessor to the women, not a good start

No one wanted a book-learned man who had read Nietzsche

so when the money was gone it was back to sea.

any ship would do as long as I was paid so I...

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Stay at you lest

 In the working class district where grew up

Stay with your lest

most boys began working in a factory when old enough

they married to a nice wife had a little flat and children.

they continued being solid workers till the reached

pension age got a watch and a picture in the local paper

dressed in ill-fitting suits looking solemn and proud.

They had don...

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Alone in the night

During the night I had no angst

but my teeth hurt and sleep had gone truant

Time is relative the clock on the stand

appeared to have stopped checking the time

in the living room, it was 2 minutes faster.

Four in the morning too late for a glass of wine

not a common drunk, got nothing to hide.

When awake the toothache had gone for now

it was o...

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This crazy world

Steven Hawkins is dead his contribution to science

was magnificent, even though I do not understand.

In the meantime, we pollute the land big cities are

running out of drinking  water and future wars will not

be about oil but fresh water.

We continue to fight wars that are about ism and power,

yes, the isms that by its nature is hateful and

only good to mak...

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 I have been to my heart doctor

she noticed I had been smoking and banged a delicate

fist on the table and her stethoscope danced over her

firm breasts,  she was furious,

did not listen to my lame excuses that a cigarette 

was given to me the day before and polite as I`m

couldn`t say no. She was not mollified.

What do I know perhaps she is worried by her son?

who doesn`t wa...

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Security guard

I was broke, no work for me at the shipping office,

got a job guarding tractors; sat in hut that was cold and had no heating

and bad light. Well, this job was better than sitting at home

lamenting my unemployment, but my god was it boring.

Sat on a tractor pretending I was a farmer ploughing a potato field,

and that was tedious too. The uniform they had given ...

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The Voice of the People

The morning is excellent and calm

I try to write about the feeling I have inside me,

but can only come up with a feeling

of boredom, that comes when looking out of the window

too often and see nothing has changed.

I don`t want to live here anymore, but is fearful

of the unknown – being outside my comfort zone-

even if it is tedious, I find the w...

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Alfred and the wilderness 

Alfred, who with the greatest of ease tells,

Me he is not my father and I went for a walk across chlorophyll filled field.

Alfred who is a musician and never ventures out in the landscape

saw some grazing sheep and wondered if they were dangerous,

no, I said they are sheep and born friendly

as God created them, to this Alfred called me a crypto-Chr...

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As the time of spring beckons

We all have this moment of clear-sightedness

when we see we are of little importance other to the world

and clear-eyed grasp our smallness.

We can in our tiny ways push the world forward an inch

perhaps to a fairer society where children do not die under

the rubble of concrete.

We can do nothing to stop these people...

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  At the end of rural Idyll 

                         It has been a long day

lugging water, gas and fire-wood

up to the cabin

I hope it is the last time having to do this.

We are moving into a roomy flat in Cascais

it has a panoramic view over the bay, the sea

yes, it was my first love even though I`m loath

to admit it, but I will miss the trees and

the greenery of ...

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Poets and intellectuals

 A big white screen I look at it and type a few words,

utter banalities about a washing machine, the brain has nowhere to go

but to think of the near things.

There was a time when I sat on top of a mountain feet dangling high

above ground when I thought if I tried could fly; everything was possible

now I’m dead inside. Death starts when the mind goes ...

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  Alfred like dogs

Alfred, my father who steadfastly refuse to be one

had bought four sausages, and was frying them when I came in,

but papa I said you are a vegetarian, yes he said two are for you

and two are for the dog that hangs outside the restaurant

where he plays the piano, it needs reassurance and food.

Alfred chuckled to himself, and I was not sure if I should feel

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A few words

Absence

Is not a peace

It is possibilities

Wasted

                       For the old

The stillness holds no peace

Only an echo of the undone

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Alfred has Arthritis

Since Alfred, the man who strenuously denies

fatherhood got arthritis in his hands, it often happens

when it gets cold. He sleeps to noon take forever

in the bathroom before going to town looking like an artist

in his alpaca jacket and French beret.

He eats lunch in town alone never think of inviting me

and in the evening watches Bulgarian soap opera,

h...

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 Martin Luther King

It is 50 years since he was shot dead

It shocked America and naturally uproar and looting

by the black population followed.

I remember the man because he saw that poverty

is the enemy and we must try to eradicate it.

For the black population not so much have changed

a horde of young black men have no education and

live by gang violence and drugs.

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Sailing

I will be here

Waiting for you

In the bay of peace.

When becalmed

Your sails grey

Days of glory over

I will be there

In the tranquil bay

Waiting for you.

Our anchors

Will be our wedding ring

De-rigged

Side by side

At last, my love.

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