Counter-Currents
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed

LEVEL2

  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Print
August 23, 2018 4 comments

Five Poems & Two Translations

Leo Yankevich

679 words

The Marriage of Heaven & Hell

“I liked the taste of beer, its live, white lather, its brass-bright depths, the sudden world through the wet-brown walls of the glass, the tilted rush to the lips and the slow swallowing down to the lapping belly, the salt on the tongue, the foam at the corners.”—Dylan Thomas

Beneath the shadow of grey clouds, black crows,
he sits upon the green-grey faded bench.
Behind it, trees walk past the church hedge rows,
grey-brown, nigh leafless. Water cannot quench

his thirst, dark ale, perhaps, stout, porter, bock.
Steeples and domes, corroded malachite,
can hardly light the day amid the talk
of poets, Baudelaires who love the night.

He greets me, standing on pale cobble stone,
my book of poems printed in strange fonts,
its pages yellowed. His voice is a gramophone
that says: “here everyone gets what he wants.”

26 May 2018

 

Songbird

Almost four in the morning
in May; I hear him sing
a love call, not a warning:
a drunken man’s lips sting.

Sing, sing my little bird.
Yesterday’s stale fries,
beer, whisky, the absurd!
Watch, watch as he now dies.

Never has he heard
a song as beautiful
as yours, my little bird,
so joyous and so full.

At sunup they’ll scrape him
up from the cold, stone pavement,
rooks will peck at each limb
to my, to my amazement.

28 May 2018

 

Joe Hooker, Union General

Joe Hooker was a heavy drinking man,
drunk when he led his men into a battle,
famous for his longish caravan
of whores, and rebs he’d slaughtered like mere cattle.

When honest Abe told him, “Joe, stop the drinking,”
Joe Hooker sobered up and lost and lost,
now hesitant, afraid and over-thinking,
though it was dead men who had paid the cost.

5 June 2018

 

The Honey Badger

When this badger leaves its burrows
even the cobra snake is sought.
Long days it forages sand furrows,
pinching rats the serpent caught.

And then the badger taunts the snake,
and bites off its reptilian head,
swallowing venom, putting at stake
its life, now slipping off, but fed.

For hours it lies upon its back
as if numbed at the jaws of death.
When it awakes it starts to pack
its snout with cobra flesh, each breath

invested in each pungent bite
as heaven watches over it,
the ceremony and the crime.

Such is the honey badger’s rite
upon the Kalahari writ,
and ours since origins of time.

7 June 2018

 

The Komodo Dragon

No angel hovers over
the komodo dragon.
Across the grass and clover,
past the peasant’s wagon,

slowly it approaches
its hapless, heedless prey.
The huge hog that it poaches,
poisoned at break of day,

with one komodo bite,
will fall weak on its feet,
stunned, dizzy in half light,
its pork now tender sweet.

While the swine is alive,
but blood-drained, almost dead,
komodos feast and thrive —
no angel overhead,

no demons, ghosts or God,
just hunger and great need,
while we, the righteous, awed,
forget about our greed.

8 June 2018

 

Homework Assignment

Forgive me, mother, that for what I wrote,
on life’s commandments, I received a D.
Now how can I hand in each sloppy note,
when on the shaggy rug they summon me?
Are there some teachers you know in Those Parts
or scissors stemming from the pangs of guilt
with which you cut out dead and tiny darts,
since when they grow back, for a treasure gilt,
I’ll go there where Icarus once would flee
to learn of the strange laws of gravity
and found how hard Earth is for boys like me.

Translated by Leo Yankevich after the Polish of Wiesław Musiałowski

 

The Angel

They all have mouths that tire,
bright souls that have no seams.
And longing (for sin’s mire)
passes through their dreams.

Almost alike they stride,
silent beneath the Tree,
like intervals inside
great God’s grand symphony.

But when one of them rages,
spread wings set tempests spinning,
as if God, sculpting ages,
huge-handed, leafed through pages,
the dark book of beginning.

Translated by Leo Yankevich from the German of Rainer Maria Rilke

Related

  • Mihai Eminescu:
    Romania’s Morning Star

  • “He Doesn’t Worry Too Much If Mediocre People Get Killed in Wars and Such”
    Tito Perdue’s The Smut Book & Cynosura

  • Jalal El-Kadali’s Oyster Mountain

  • If White Privileges Were Real

  • Remembering Rudyard Kipling
    (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

  • The Plymouth 400 Symposium
    Robert Frost’s “Directive”:
    A Quintessential Yankee Poem by New England’s Quintessential Yankee Poet

  • Heroic Road Songs

  • I Knew You When Your Eyes Were Blue

Tags

Leo Yankevichpoetry

Previous

« Imperium:
American History X Meets Harry Potter

Next

Noble Truths for Modern Mad Men »

4 comments

  1. Burnside says:
    August 23, 2018 at 7:34 pm

    Re Joe Hooker: Bruce Berry was a workin man, he used to load that Econoline van.

    Weren’t the drunk stories about Hooker mostly invented or exaggerated by political hack journalists, come on.
    Good poem though, man, I couldn’t do better.

  2. Leo Yankevich says:
    August 24, 2018 at 4:45 am

    Everything I know about Joe Hooker comes from my American history professor, a West Point educated retired general. 1983. I was the only student he let sit in the front row. He was a great man.

    You can believe my professor or Wiki Encyclopedia. It’s your choice.

  3. Harvey says:
    August 26, 2018 at 8:42 am

    We have a lot of these Komodo Dragon’s in Canada now, mostly in the city centres and Universities. Komodotown’s you might say. Compared to the recent Nazi threat, it is a minor inconvenience. After all, without the great statesman Churchill’s inebriate guidance, we would all be speaking German now. No more olden times silver commodity behind the currency, it’s all done through the modern magic of paper. V for Victory!

    * Years ago, I bought a copy of R.M.Rilke’s poems from a lesbian judensau in a chi-chi bookstore in Hongcouver. She seemed disappointed at my choice, but visibly cheered at the sight of my cash.

  4. El Desdichado says:
    October 1, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    RE: Dylan T.

    Love your poem.
    I used the same photo in one I wrote about him here for National Poetry Month:

    https://connecthook.net/2015/04/12/welsh-revival/

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

Recent posts
  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 337
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    4

  • Peak Redpill

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    13

  • Darwin & Conflict

    Morris van de Camp

    2

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 336
    Interview with Jared Taylor

    Counter-Currents Radio

    10

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    April 11-17, 2021

    Jim Goad

    16

  • The Searchers

    Trevor Lynch

    20

  • Fundraiser Update, this Weekend’s Livestreams, & A New Way to Support Counter-Currents

    Greg Johnson

    3

  • Two Nationalisms

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    44

  • A Robertson Roundup: 
    Remembering Wilmot Robertson
    (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

    Margot Metroland

    15

  • Remembering Dominique Venner
    (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

    Greg Johnson

    11

  • I’m Not a Racist, But. . .

    Jim Goad

    45

  • The Father

    Steven Clark

    5

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 335
    Dark Enlightenment

    Counter-Currents Radio

    11

  • Are We Ready For “White Boy Summer”?

    Robert Hampton

    33

  • Can the Libertarian Party Become a Popular Vanguard?

    Beau Albrecht

    17

  • Every Phoenix Needs Its Ashes

    Mark Gullick

    24

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 334
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    2

  • If I Were Black, I’d Vote Democrat

    Spencer J. Quinn

    14

  • The Silence of the Scam:
    The Killing of Dr. Lesslie

    Stephen Paul Foster

    7

  • Proud of Being Guilty:
    Fighting the Stigma of Lawfare in Sweden & Winning

    HMF Medaljen

    6

  • The Halifax Grooming Gang Survivor

    Morris van de Camp

    22

  • Get on the Right Side of the Paywall

    Greg Johnson

    12

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    April 4-10, 2021

    Jim Goad

    13

  • Forthcoming from Counter-Currents:
    Jonathan Bowden’s Reactionary Modernism

    Jonathan Bowden

  • Remembering Prince Philip

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    16

  • Remembering Jonathan Bowden
    (April 12, 1962–March 29, 2012)

    Greg Johnson

    7

  • Today’s Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

  • Paywall Launch, Monday, April 12th

    Greg Johnson

    10

  • Galaxy Quest:
    From Cargo Cult to Cosplay

    James J. O'Meara

    13

  • Biden to Whites: Drop Dead!

    Spencer J. Quinn

    22

  • Politicians Didn’t Invent Racial Divisions

    Robert Hampton

    7

  • London: No City for White Men

    Jim Goad

    51

  • Republicans Should Stop Pandering to Blacks

    Lipton Matthews

    18

  • Quotations From Chairman Rabble
    Kenneth Roberts: A Patriotic Curmudgeon

    Steven Clark

    6

  • Remembering Emil Cioran
    (April 8, 1911–June 20, 1995)

    Guillaume Durocher

    5

  • An Interview with Béla Incze:
    The Man Who Destroyed a BLM Statue

    Béla Incze

    15

  • Heidegger’s History of Metaphysics, Part Six:
    G. W. Leibniz’s Will-to-Power

    Collin Cleary

    12

  • The Importance of Survival Skills

    Marcus Devonshire

    22

  • The Oslo Incident

    Greg Johnson

    2

  • Mihai Eminescu:
    Romania’s Morning Star

    Amory Stern

    1

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World & Me

    Beau Albrecht

    21

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 333
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    5

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    March 28-April 3, 2021

    Jim Goad

    18

  • Murder Maps:
    Agatha Christie’s Insular Imperialism

    Kathryn S.

    29

  • A Clockwork Orange

    Trevor Lynch

    21

  • Easter Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Greg Johnson

    1

  • Our Big, Beautiful Wall

    Greg Johnson

    4

  • Agrarian Populism & Cargo Cult Fascism

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    9

  • One Carjacking Embodies the New America

    Robert Hampton

    38

  • The de la Poer Madness:
    Before and After Lovecraft’s “Rats in the Walls”

    James J. O'Meara

    9

Recent comments
  • As for Chattanooga, I'd try to avoid cities. I've been to Nashville several times, and it has some...
  • Your title suggestion is rampagingly dull and does not reflect the book's contents at all. And...
  • I enjoyed this review and its thoughtful analysis of a great movie. I remember more the splendid...
  • Chauvin is guilty. And OJ was innocent.
  • Over the past five or so years I’ve grown more and more frustrated with a few family/friends irl who...
Editor-in-Chief
Greg Johnson
Our titles
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • Imperium
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Novel Folklore
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • The Homo and the Negro, Second Edition
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • The End of an Era
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Lost Violent Souls
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • Baader Meinhof ceramic pistol, Charles Kraaft 2013
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher, Second Expanded Edition
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Artists of the Right
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Under the Nihil
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Hold Back This Day
  • The Columbine Pilgrim
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Toward the White Republic
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
Distributed Titles
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Copyright © 2021 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd. Five Poems & Two Translations

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.