Having a Coke with you

Having a Coke with You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it
Frank O’Hara

The mountain

We sit together 

the mountain and i

until only the mountain remains

Li Po

Medusa

Be humble for you are made of earth,

Be humble for you are made of stars.

Serbian proverb.

The Blue Girl

Once upon a time a blue girl found a secret place

were strange people lived with music and magic

all creatures appeared until she found a beautiful face

what she did not know was that the mysterious man

was hiding a history of tragic in the enchanted land

a warrior he was and an assassin he became

his eyes reflected a thousand souls kill by is hand

she stood still and by her side he came....

The Legend of the 47 Ronin - Japanese legends

At the heart of Japan is the samurai code of "bushido." Its canons encompass the range of honour that a warrior lived by: courtesy and courage, sincerity and self-control, honour and loyalty. 

Asano, a samurai lord, was summoned to the Shogun’s palace in the great city of Edo. Under the watchful eye of his tutor, Lord Kira, master of palace protocol, Asano was given court responsibilities. Friction between the two men, however, was constant. Asano refused to pay the bribes that Kira demanded for his services. Kira used every opportunity to publicly humiliate Asano. After months of abuse, Asano’s tolerance was gone. He drew his sword against Kira within the palace walls a grievous offence and attempted but failed to kill him. The punishment for this was inflexible. Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku, a ritual act of suicide.

Upon his death, Asano’s estates were confiscated, his family was disinherited, and his 300 samurai retainers were ordered to disband, thus becoming ronin or masterless warriors. Scores of them, however, in a secret blood oath, swore to avenge their Lord’s disgrace and restore his rightful honour. Headed by their general, Oishi, they undertook nearly two years of great self-denial and carefully conceived ruses to disguise their real purpose. Oishi himself moved to Kyoto, where he became an infamous drunk and gambler, all to deceive the Shogun’s police and Kira’s many spies.

The ruses worked. Kira and his allies finally relaxed their suspicions of Oishi and his men. On a winter night, January 31, 1703, the 47 Ronin reconvened in Edo. They marched to Kira’s mansion, announcing themselves to those inside with the beating of a war drum. In the great battle that followed, the 47 stormed the grounds, killing all of Kira’s guards without a single loss of their own. Finding Kira, they brought him to a courtyard and offered him the chance to honourably commit seppuku. When he refused, Oishi swiftly beheaded him with the same sword that Asano had used to end his own life. Then, to symbolise the completion of their mission, the 47 returned to Asano’s grave and set the head of Kira before it, declaring their Lord’s honour redeemed.

Prepared to die for this deed, the ronin proclaimed what they had done to the Shogun’s court authorities. The Shogun himself, though sympathetic to their heroic act, was nonetheless on the horns of a dilemma. To pardon them would be to condone a vendetta. After months of controversy the decision was made that each of the 47 would execute himself, not as a criminal but as an honoured warrior. One at a time they dignified themselves in carrying out the sentence and were buried alongside their Lord. Their resting place at Sengaku-ji Temple located in the heart of Tokyo, remains today a shrine to the sacred values of samurai virtue.