Thomas Meyer's “Airs Waters Places”

Aegyptian Love Song

For MJW
I breathe the sweet breath which comes forth from thy mouth. I behold thy beauty every day. It is my desire that I may be rejuvenated with life through love of thee. Give me thy hands, holding thy spirit. That I may receive it and may live by it. Call thou upon my name unto eternity and it shall never fail.

Look around.

When you come to a city
you've never been to before.

What do you see?

Dry flat hunks of clay
with

they might be words

pressed onto them.

To make an inventory
a story

took seven hundred years.

*

Knowing things like this
finds out other things.

Summer or winter. Stars
rise and set. Such a one

knowing these things
in particular practices

an art.

Despite second thoughts.

The stars add an uncommon lot.

*

Say clearly.
A city. Winter
winds.

Plenty of water

but briny.

*

Cold winds in summer.

Gone blind. A long life nonetheless.

The city faces which way?

*

Water flows to the sun rising.
Clear, sweet smelling, soft.
Good to drink.
See it that way.

*

Scarcely touched. Cloudy ponds.

Morning mist.

No direct sunlight.

Summer

yet cold breezes and heavy dew.

More like autumn.
Dawn and dusk
differ.

Rough, hoarse talking.

*

Summer marsh. Still waters. Fevers.
Or waters with frog eggs in them.

Those that flow from hills.
Sweet and clear.

*

Rain water. Snow melting.
Sun draws the light sweet water

that is rain. But all water
once ice never recovers.

*

When we drink from rivers
or streams or lakes

we drink all sorts of waters,
sweet, harsh, salt.

The north wind gives them their strength.

*

Autumn rain, mild winter.
Spring and summer seasonal.

*

Some fatal. Some pass away. Some change.
Study. Look and see.

Be careful when autumn changes to winter,
winter to spring, spring to summer.

*

A long story. Asia and Europe.
Courage, endurance, work.

Mild, beautiful, large.

the middle of sunrise.

To take great pleasure.

*

Difference of soil and seasons.
Difference of people living there.

Mountains, forests, plains, meadows.
Some places trees cover. Others

bare and dry.

*

This is the result of that
though no longer the case.

Want becomes need.

*

Fens, woods, warm, humid. Much
hard rain. All year round. Life

amid water. Rough speech
made so by breathing cloudy air.

*

Seasons lacking much difference
work against change and understanding.

Perhaps this is obvious. Maybe not.
Then there is the matter of undeciding.

*

The women ride horses, shoot arrows,
throw spears, and remain virgins

until they kill three enemies then
marry. All their strength depends upon

the fullness of their right arm.

*

Peculiar shape, not like anything else.
Prairie, rich meadows. Men live in wagons.

Houses on wheels. They eat boiled meat.
Cheese made of horses' milk.

*

Ice and snow provide drinking water.
What wild animals there are
are small and few.

*

Tawny from the cold, not the sun.
Parched.

*

Soft, cold belly. Weak desire.
A slender body.

*

Nothing is any more divine
than anything else.

Tired and cold, desire disappears.

*

Height and shape owe
the seasons their changes.

Wild, alone, brave.
The captured heart

won't risk its love.

*

Rivers carry off still waters
and rain. How we are

is where we are.

*

Hippocrates. Akhenaton.
Paraphrase. Parataxis. Praxis.
Pretension.

*

Its sweetness. Your breath takes away mine.
I look at your beauty every day.
I want loving you to give me a life.
Let me hold your hands, and your heart in mine.
To take it then live by it.
Say my name. This will last a long time.