Texts: music written to order

In my cup

In the thin snow

In front of your window

In the window sky

In the blue distance

In the scattered doors

In the pool near your room

In the shadow on the highway

In every quarter of the evening land

In the staves of the sky

I seem to hear your voice

(New and Selected Poems - New Poems, p. 264)

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

*Taigu Ryokan, a Japanese poet

 
There are those who feed only on oranges.
— S.Y. Agnon*

Nothing rhymes in English with an orange.
It stands alone, with luster in a far tinge.
It stands alone, and seems to make a star cringe.

On Saturday it’s blue like an orange
Or like a surrealist sight rhyme** in a garage.
Nothing rhymes in English with an orange.

But rime riche*** is rich enough for an orange.
Still my doorman sings, Put it away in storage!
It stands alone, and seems to make a star cringe.

Orange replies: I’m drunk from my last bar-binge
Half-rhymes like hangovers suddenly impinge.
But nothing rhymes in English with an orange.

While my wife in French eats one in her nude linge
Playwrights Synge and Inge flap forward on a car-hinge.
It stands alone, and seems to make a star cringe.

Pronounce it orange and then expunge.
So ends the story of the very violet orange.
Nothing rhymes in English with an orange.
It stands alone, and seems to make a star cringe.

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

*Shmuel Yosef Agnon born Czaczkes (1888-1970) - a Nobel Prize for Literature winner in 1966

**sight rhyme is based on words that look similar but sound different

***rime riche (= rich rhyme) contains three identlical sounds (phonemes)