Fourth Birthday For Two (4. Geburtstag für 2)

Grandfather’s 4th-Birthday Greeting to Levi River Winter Cervantes:

(16 Jan. 2016)

I know a girl who’s four years old,

She just turned that today –

When they made her they broke the mold –

Then sent her out to play!

She lives in California,

Not far from the Pacific –

Her sister’s Oceana –

And Levi is terrific!

The winter’s cold the river’s froze,

Now curl up warm and cozy – yes?

One day for books you’ll have a nose

And read one by Cervantes.

Emmi Wird Vier!
(9. Jan. 2016)

Emmi wird schon vier Jahr' alt,
ihr Opa ist damit erstaunt –
und fragt sich wo die Zeit hin flug,
sie steht vor ihm so hell, so klug!

Er weißt noch wo er vier Jahr' war,
und auch all seine Kinder . . .
So viele Windeln hat er durch,
freute sich um Emmi – kein Wunder!

Sein Herz hat sie erobert schon,
als er sie erst anblickte –
jetzt tanzt sie 'rum in Kostüm schön,
und Opa schreibt ihr Gedichte.

When I Hear Your Name

(Oceana Elle-Helene, 26.7.2013)

As the sound of a spring current comes to my ear upon your sister's name,

breaking the wintry silence imposed on us in shame –

my joy toward Levi River-Winter now with sister in double

in having births both framed to see, and worth ev'ry bit the trouble.

Oceana now also in my ear true

and furthermore some hint in Hebrew:

as Elle-Helene appears like el-chalon or el-aleinu –

reminding that "God-is-Window" and "...with-us" too.

Through just such a window I did find you two,

for by that Grace was I granted to view;

my darlings make two – and you've just turned one –

how my heart soars, now embracing with Oceana: the sun.

(Arrival at Paradise Valley Hospital with angelic escort: 13:05 h PST, 26 JUL 2013)

(white frame, lower left)

http://samuelinayatchisti.blogspot.de/2014/05/schwester-des-flusses.html

There Is A River

There is a constant rushing stream of fresh water

whose ageless stillness is the mother to its steady movement,

embracing all other sound in its own.

As from a choir holding one note drawing myriad overtones,

a bather could be bathed or overwhelmed in the pulse of that current;

one river, many strokes of water, every moment the same and changing.

I can sit on either bank, straddle or wade or walk away;

I can howl at it, laugh or weep, ignore it, curse it or write odes;

there can be no stopping its force, its voice is always with me.

If it were to dry up, if its harsh sweet water were to quit –

if this river gave itself up to the 'dammed', my life would go with it.

This river is simply my love for Levi.