(to be read while listening to Gnossienne #5)
Poem to a Gnossienne of Erik Satie
Ed Sanders
The issue of the rose
so vital to our youth
shall rise again
It always has
it always
will
And it’s
our dance of
our life
to grow the rose
It always was
It always will
Ink on paper told me that
& the rose agrees
It always has
it always
will
There comes a time
when all the
petals have to fall
& yet there’s
such a place
where petals
never fall
You know, my Erik–
they’re the same same place!
Everyone
has a right
to food, a decent place to live, health
& fun, my Erik,
fun & fan & fun
The rose haunts
all of time
it always has
it always will
Meanwhile
all of us fade
to the same
same
anarcho-determinist
post-marxist
place of the sun
in our
furry pajamas
And the rose haunts
all of time
it always has
it always will
March 1998
(please play Satie’s Gnossienne #5
while slowly reciting this poem.
Toward the end of the music chant
“The Rose haunts all of time” 6 or 7 times.)
This poem also appeared in Work #6, a 2009 Detroit Artists Workshop Anthology of Generations