[New-Poetry] from the Writer's Almanac

[Anny Ballardini]

Poem: "Samurai Song" by Robert Pinsky, from Jersey Rain. © Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Reprinted with permission. (buy now) 

Samurai Song 

When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had 
No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no 
Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made 
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have 
Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment 
Is my strategy. When I had 
No lover I courted my sleep.


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Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star! 
Friedrich Nietzsche 
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