Erich Fried

 SPEECHLESS

 Why are you

 still writing

 poems

 knowing that

 by this method

 you accomplish

 only small things

 my friends ask

 impatient that

 their methods only

 accomplish small things

 and I

 have no answer

 for them

 NEW NATURE POETRY

 He knows how boring it would be

 if poetry were made only

 of the contradictions of society

 and that it would be better to write

 of pines in the morning

 so that immediately a poem occurs to him

 on the necessity of changing themes

 and his decision

 to write of pines in the morning

 but even when he really gets up early enough

 to be driven to the pines at morning

 does anything occur to him of their image and odor?

 or does he catch himself on the ride thinking:

 should we get there

 and they by chance have already fallen

 to lie without branches on the sandy cliffs

 between sawdust twigs and fallen needles

 because some speculator has bought the land

 that would be very sad

 but the smell of the sap would be stronger

 and the morning light on the sawed-off yellow stumps

 would be brighter because no longer would

 the crowns stand in the sun’s way. This

 would make for a new impression

 and certainly more than enough

 subjective experience

 to allow for a poem

 of accusation against this society.

 TWO LAUGHING SOLDIERS FROM ST. PAULI

 If I had not learned from Saigon

 that Sergeant Luong always giggled

 as he faced the prisoners of war

 whom he shot

 I would not now

 whenever I hear laughter

 think of “Laughing Larry”

 and of Ky’s words “My model is Hitler”

 If I had not learned

 of what happened in Vietnam

 my life would be easier

 although some say

 there’s nothing you can do about it

 and therefore it doesn’t make sense

 for you to spoil our joy in life

 for us and for yourself

 But when I resolve on silence

 I see Sergeant Luong

 and Air Force General Ky

 here at home, with different names

 to be sure, cleaning their teeth

 in order to face us prisoners

 with bright smiling laughter

 THE FREEDOM TO OPEN THE MOUTH

 The freedom to open the mouth

 exists even here

 where others cry:

 these mouths are to be shut!

 So much so

 one need only posit a list

 of everything that may come

 out of their mouths supposedly shut

 First screams

 second at the beginning

 and finally at the end

 perhaps even protests

 Third teeth

 and fourth blood and filth

 vomits

 and sixth in many cases

 liquids

 that were first injected

 through tubes or

 through immersions of the head

 One must not have a one-sided view

 because the freedom to open the mouth

 is an equal right for all

 and certainly for the authorities as well

 to open the hard-bitten mouth

 of the prisoner

 What to put in it?

 Much water or much oil

 or the heel of boots

 or dirt and bloody rags

 or urine

 or sawdust or earth

 so that there comes out of it

 if everything works well

 the freely willed

 confession

 Sometimes the mouth gets hurt

 but there’s always the freedom to open it

 which will continue to govern – in one way or another –

 throughout our land

 DEFEAT

 Where does war kneel?

 where does it wait for forgiveness

 full of humility on the dusty roads?

 Reality

 rides its hooves over fairy tales

 lies saddle desire

 to ride it once more to market

 and again to shame

 Wedding

 of stallion and snake

 what was that?

 the dream stops

 and in the waking nightmare I see

 that post-war

 is once more pre-war

 GROWING PAINS

 In the first years

 of reconstruction

 there still remains

 a deplorable

 lack

 of luxury goods

 Beware:

 what will then

 be sold in the Co-op

 for real wolf skin

 used to be our black sheep

 deceptively redone

 HOPEFUL MISFORTUNE MESSAGE

 With misfortune it is always assumed

 that fortune

 must be simple

 and misfortune crooked and confused

 It is unfortunate that misfortune

 always muddles

 the eye and robs the vision

 of its compelling form

Could we once see

the inner logic of misfortune

we would love its classical features

free of crooked

confusing pre-judgments

that would be misfortune’s fortune

  

INSCRIPTION

  

There where the mighty

 listen to words of reason

 there the wise are

 just to one another

 there stones swim

 and save drowning fish

 there young and old

 understand one another