So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
-Leonard Cohen / Boogie Street
XII LETTERS WRITTEN
XII LETTERS WRITTEN
I ”With Letters Made of Light and Paper Again”
If light is a letter sent by God
And if there's a place for me,
And my XII writings
Like coffee stains on an Egyptian scroll
From the heart, emptied and longing
For an old or a new text
I'll write another poem (in English)
And what guides the hand
Using neither ink nor lead
Oh not to throw it away
There'll be many copies to take
With so many copies to take
The reeds and the wind....
Like coffee stains on an Egyptian scroll
From the heart, emptied and longing
For an old or a new text
I'll write another poem (in English)
And what guides the hand
Using neither ink nor lead
Oh not to throw it away
There'll be many copies to take
With so many copies to take
The reeds and the wind....
And pray for mercy, to receive a letter
To receive a letter made
Of light and paper, again
Warmth in English or Hebrew
”Black fire on white fire”
The Bulgarian Master spoke
And they were kept safe
They were all kept safe
Listening to your music
”...Saved me from becoming
Warmth in English or Hebrew
”Black fire on white fire”
The Bulgarian Master spoke
And they were kept safe
They were all kept safe
Listening to your music
”...Saved me from becoming
A black magician”
And if we're here so lightly,
If we are here so lightly
Without prayer we'd certainly
Not be here at all
With no prayer we'd certainly
Not be here at all
And the honest letters in
The Name(less) I Am
The world is made of them,
The world is made of them,
They were made of us
Who could [smile and] have more faith in this
To heal, to heal us if that is... [,] The Light
”Should we have more faith in this” Comes
(And if we're letters in the Nameless I Am
The Word is made of us, and we are Through
Made of it, and we're made of it Hidden text
Should we have more faith in this Your Will
Should we have more faith in this Your Will
We'd have more faith in this The Window
We should have more faith, should we אהיה
Should we have more, should we not הוה
Should we have, should we That which is
Should we not Unpronounced
Should we) And reflected
Around 27th of April, 2015 ♉
Should we) And reflected
Around 27th of April, 2015 ♉
with a few letters changed after that,
but the Wor(l)d is the same
For Leonard Cohen,
The Gypsies and the Jews,
It was g__d, it wasn't boring
”Oh sleep young, rest older”
Where John came to be loved
Like the youth who slept for ages
Until the Reign of Terror it ended
And if no good Shepherd had called
For those who never crossed the line
Of not coming back, they would be
Still dreaming between the abyss,
The daughter(s) and loving Sophia
For the young men who slept long
“The ever-changing wedding hymn”
Don’t take my hand, or the cigarette
Either, but I smoked whenever there
Lost or found, the only place I went
And who should have gone to sleep
The lucky sta(i)rs of our nightclub
”The others they would have to leave,
And all our ladies’ men gone awry”
Who withered more, withered not
For the young who slept so long
And all our ladies’ men gone awry”
Who withered more, withered not
For the young who slept so long
The Nameless
T Y M
III ”The Palm Tree and a Windmill”
Of the pictures taken there are none left
The windmill, a palm tree in the harbour
We have seen the same island and gardens
Like a dream, and whispers were followed
To dovelike white shores no longer secret
We’ve both been there in love and the sun
Not at the same time, not at the same time
”And like yours, mine was a broken faith”
On the side of a coin, Parian marble statue
And the beautiful queen of Cyprus, dancing
The swans of Apollo against the windmills
And every dream or whisper that we followed
Through whatever site one may be surfing on
The pictures taken or (un)seen, praised be
Our faith kept, even if it has been broken
Let the Mystic of Cyprus teach again
With palm trees over a path of stone
How this ground could have been there
For those who were stranded, or gone away
And those who left themselves to lie….
”Mine was a broken faith like yours”
For J.N.W.
Greetings to Hawai,
To Daskalos ("the teacher"),
The mystic of Cyprus
IV ”Note in A Minor….”
Have I asked for this, earnestly
And should I p(r)ay for this
”Honey, I’m broke in Zürich”
In a minor fall, writing again
Who ever has talked of God...
And should I p(r)ay for this
”Honey, I’m broke in Zürich”
In a minor fall, writing again
Who ever has talked of God...
Both of them had been there
”If I was p(r)aying for nothing”
Oh I know that it sounds poor
And what I have asked, I have asked
It’s frightening if one goes crazy (with this)
And even more frightening to stay the same
If one will stay hereafter sane,
While gone to this
”When a man would
”When a man would
(Not) lose his mind and…”
For those who know not
Themselves or the truth
Frightening is the weight
Frightening is the weight
Of the words in a poem
Where the scales are
Where the scales are
Getting balanced, not only
The truth is shown, but the way
The truth is shown, but the way
(From lies to truth), and the life,
Many poets have written like that
But if they haven’t been there,
They don’t know it
What is above all else,
Lest all else fails
To my friend and room mate, the economist
O.J.K and the years in Töölö (2000-2003),
For Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs
V ”English Teacher”
Sorry for being too late, I had to stand
Against the whole world of English literature
For I’ve used this tongue as if it was between
Russian and German, or mother’s Finnish
And distorting its names and letters
Not teaching English, not like the artist
Being helped with grammar and questions
The changing rules of creative language
For God, the Will there and again
The French themes of revolving
With homelike or exotic landscapes
Wonderful places, in feelings of awe
”The language is odd because it is poetry”
Good or Evil, spiritual and other things
Hospitality for the strangers in this world
Everyday’s nothing, bored and dull, but safe
And with a different name a different history
”Alexander the Great in European thought...”
From teaching the rules to breaking them
I’ve been too viole(n)t, using tongue
In viole(n)t plays and loss of work
But I still hope a friend will be there
Even if I have to stand against
The whole English-speaking world
God knows - whom the teaching - is - for
Whether things will be done or not
They’re still truthful and real
To Malaysian attraction
And my friend N.R.
(I'm still sorry for your loss)
VI "Minne-song(s)”
God, it’s May again
And where is my muse now
”Into your emptiness, cruel it is”
To write petty love songs for you
(”Is it too much to ask, it isn’t much”)
Of the heartstricken, low or high feelings
They won’t [ever] take you far from this
”And they’re still young like we were”
Only for one May I thought I could
But it was not my Fati to be like…
Thank God I’m not that good, either
And if your love is hurt, still in chains
If the world is dead without it, vanity
How long should one wait for this
”It was like the saviour of my soul
That I’m only a writer of songs,
Though having the illness of the poet”
And even if you had laughed at us
When I sat there at your home (in 1999)
A recovery in the sense of something,
Something warm would come to me
(From notes and fragments
Written in May 2002 / 2009)
For M.T.
VII ”The Swans of Ainola”
When the world is (like) music
In a land where old men weep
And if even the wisest of them,
The knower wept like a (wo)man
Why shouldn’t everyone else…
And from those trees that fell
Two pieces were composed
For the Birch and the Fir
And there in the garden of Ainola
As some people have been
In a land where old men weep
And if even the wisest of them,
The knower wept like a (wo)man
Why shouldn’t everyone else…
And from those trees that fell
Two pieces were composed
For the Birch and the Fir
And there in the garden of Ainola
As some people have been
Joking at my expense
I admit that I was moved to tears, literally
”The swans they were in the sky”
I could not see them with my eyes
But I could feel them, written
Into that place’s memory
The musical score with no story
Burning in a place of fiery tongues
When the notes burned, the soul
Of our composer found peace
For the years that were left
VIII ”(Un)like the French Inferno”
I admit that I was moved to tears, literally
”The swans they were in the sky”
I could not see them with my eyes
But I could feel them, written
Into that place’s memory
The musical score with no story
Burning in a place of fiery tongues
When the notes burned, the soul
Of our composer found peace
For the years that were left
VIII ”(Un)like the French Inferno”
The warmth of the red
All the wine flowing to keep us
Together, or bringing closer now
(Un)like the French Inferno theme
With Arcades, and passing through
The rest of the scenery being still
Romantic, for there was a moment
Of making friends with anyone
And of changing the words again
When they should (not) be changed
”And melting time, to idleness”
Who has been living like this
And Purgatory for Strindberg
”Who would repent, be ashamed
Of themselves, they could be…”
But how I’ve come to know
What they’ve gone through
Inferno crisis, the infernal city
And August reading Swedenborg
The room or the book, red and blue
What colour and where for the Teacher
Who had influence on old Strindberg
A part of this verse
To my cousin M.P. who has
Always been better in making friends
IX ”Therésienstadt”
Oh beautiful city of Therése,
Someone has loved you secretly
Crushed-on, with knees trembling
For our little societies and flowers
I was exiled like a Jewish Teuton
And no Master of the Good Name
But I had it with me (in old Prague)
”And little stones on a greater one”
With long blond hair, the clothes worn
Black on white, and the ancestor’s hat
I was exiled like some Teutonic Jew
Whom the Nazis tried to kill….
”The memory of Therésienstadt”
I never knew the Summer of Love
And I was leaving, when you had seen
The yellow town hall, I was gone already
Could you have saved me with Greensleeves
Or with (un)dressed rehearsal times, longing
And who would go around a kind of circle
And only for a month or three would speak
To each other, but it may have saved me then
With grace and languish that kept me here
Someone has loved you secretly
Crushed-on, with knees trembling
For our little societies and flowers
I was exiled like a Jewish Teuton
And no Master of the Good Name
But I had it with me (in old Prague)
”And little stones on a greater one”
With long blond hair, the clothes worn
Black on white, and the ancestor’s hat
I was exiled like some Teutonic Jew
Whom the Nazis tried to kill….
”The memory of Therésienstadt”
I never knew the Summer of Love
And I was leaving, when you had seen
The yellow town hall, I was gone already
Could you have saved me with Greensleeves
Or with (un)dressed rehearsal times, longing
And who would go around a kind of circle
And only for a month or three would speak
To each other, but it may have saved me then
With grace and languish that kept me here
For beautiful T. mother and saint
(For Hamina 1992-1998 and the Nazis there)
X ”Love, No Latin”
From all our guides and teachers
Where you met the one who taught
What (the word) Nature means in Latin
Homo homini homo
I tried so much to learn it
And I tried even harder to love
”Latin has not worked for me,
It has never worked that well”
Santa Maria in Aracoeli
With a very poor man, painting
Another version of Madonna on clouds
For the love and the fate of all those
(Heroes and their frenzies with Amor)
Who had too much fire in the heart
“And the one who came from Nola”
Pax tibi Marce(llo), you too
The black and cold humour at times
It has helped me through diff. ages
”And nights of despair, sorrow and fear”
With your Italian sense of humor, mocking
You have helped me, lo, the wayward son
I thank you from the bottom of my heart
For if we love no Latin, after all this…
God knows what is behind or beyond
"And if Nature is a Lady,
Not even a clairvoyant could tell
If it’s going to rain or not,
Always take your umbrella with you
Whenever you go outside"
Where you met the one who taught
What (the word) Nature means in Latin
Homo homini homo
I tried so much to learn it
And I tried even harder to love
”Latin has not worked for me,
It has never worked that well”
Santa Maria in Aracoeli
With a very poor man, painting
Another version of Madonna on clouds
For the love and the fate of all those
(Heroes and their frenzies with Amor)
Who had too much fire in the heart
“And the one who came from Nola”
Pax tibi Marce(llo), you too
The black and cold humour at times
It has helped me through diff. ages
”And nights of despair, sorrow and fear”
With your Italian sense of humor, mocking
You have helped me, lo, the wayward son
I thank you from the bottom of my heart
For if we love no Latin, after all this…
God knows what is behind or beyond
"And if Nature is a Lady,
Not even a clairvoyant could tell
If it’s going to rain or not,
Always take your umbrella with you
Whenever you go outside"
To Marcello Mastroianni ("the Latin Lover")
And to Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)
into a kind of initiative form
during the Twelve Holy Nights (2018 / 2019),
and finished in August 2019 around the Transfiguration
NOTES / REFERENCES
May = month, or a young maid / goddess
V. the fall and redemption of Lucifer and Adam.
Dante has written of the white rose of heavens.
Minne is a Middle-High German word.
Cf. love in the works of Plato.
Poetry is ”legal magic” in Islam.
Coffee Magic is an old song title (from 1998).
Cf. the UN work(ing) done by Kofi Annan.
V. Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.
In the Lines / Cafeteria is an old song title (from 1999).
Melchizedek was called the priest of the Most High.
Cf. Friedrich Schiller's fragment Die Malteser.
V. Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth.
V. Caravaggio's Decollazione di san Giovanni Battista.
Cf. the great sieges of Malta (in 1565 and 1942).
Cf. Lord Byron's Farewell to Malta.
Swedberg was ennobled and the name changed.
V. Emanuel Swedenborg’s De Coelo et Ejus Mirabilibus,
et de Inferno, ex Auditis et Visis (Heaven and Hell),
Sapientia Angelica de Divino Amore et de Divina
Sapientia (Divine Love and Wisdom) etc.
Gary Lachman has called him The Magus of Stockholm.
My Lost Kingdom of Sorrow is an old song title (from 1995).
Cf. Benoit Mandelbrot’s Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension.
V. the Seal or Key of Solomon (in history and lore).
Atlantis was ”the island of Poseidon” (for Plato and many others).
The creed of William Butler Yeats had something to do with acting.
V. The Wind Among the Reeds, The Wild Swans At Coole, The Tower,
Crossways, The Rose, The Winding Stair And Other Poems.
For a long time I thought the word ”terrific” means terrible.
V. Kalevala (17th runo), and the tradition of working men in blue(s).
In the olden times letters were hand-written with care and thought.
V. Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duineser Elegier, Die Sonnetten an Orfeus.
December Tears is an old song title (from 1996).
The Hebrew letter Tet resembles a cup or a serpent.
Cf. Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, Das Marienleben.
Aurora and Hesperia are psychiatric hospitals in Helsinki.
Cf. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen.
Seven Purple Dreams is an old song title (from July 1995).
Cf. Anki Lindqvist's Låt blommorna dansa, Varjot and Päivät.
V. Martin Heidegger's Vorträge und Aufsätze, Wegmarken etc.
Cf. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
V. Bahir (The Book of Light, or Brightness).
Saturnia and Vulcania were ocean-liners from Trieste.
Federico García Lorca lived in New York between 1929 and 1930.
V. Ti nyhta pou o Fernando Pessoa synantise ton Konstadino Kavafi
(The Night Fernando Pessoa met Constantine Cavafy).
Cf. the world-economical crisis (in 1929 or 2008).
The Italian word ”banca” means a bench.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote about Eucatastrophe.
Cf. Antonín Dvořák’s Z Nového svêta (From the New World).
Xenia Oecumenica means ”worldwide hospitality”.
V. Karl Friedrich Lessing's Heimkehrender Kreuzritter.
Jacques Derrida has used the word differénce
in a different way, altogether (so to speak).
V. Mihail Bulgakov's Мастер и Маргарита.
Cf. Desmond Seward's The Monks of War.
V. Rudolf Steiner's view on these themes
(Of Return, the City and the Temple).
Cf. Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem.
The word nostalgy refers to pain and home(coming).
Cf. Jaan Kaplinski’s Rajalla jota ei ole, Seesama jõgi etc.
Omar Volmer was named after the Persian poet Omar Khayyam.
V. Amin Maalouf’s Les Jardins de Lumière (The Gardens of Light).
Feirefis was the black and white half-brother of Parzival.
Ancient papyrus was made of reed.
Cf. the life and works of Peter Deunov.
The word Kabbalah means ”that which has been received”.
V. Friedrich Rittelmeyer's letters on Meditation.
Cf. Leonard Cohen's If It Be Your Will, Anthem,
Boogie Street, Show Me the Place etc.
V. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.
V. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
Cf. Draumkvedet (The Dream Song).
Saint John is the disciple who was loved.
Lost & Found was a nightclub in Helsinki.
V. the poetry of Veikko Antero Koskenniemi.
Cf. Scott Walker’s I-IV, ‘Til the Band Comes In.
Paros is a marble island with an iconic view.
V. the poems of Georgios Seferis, and Axion Esti
(Praised Be) written by Odysseus Elytis.
The Mystic of Cyprus was known as Daskalos.
Cf. Paul Celan’s Zürich, zum Storchen.
V. Thomas Stearns Eliot’s The Waste Land.
Note in A Minor was written (in part) in July 2009.
Alexander the Great is also called Dhul-Qarnayn.
V. the French themes of liberté, éqalité, fraternité.
Cf. the travels and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
V. Jacques Lacan’s L´éthique de la psychanalyse.
Letters and May is an old song title (from 2002).
V. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince.
Cf. the writings of Brother Roger of Taizé.
Cf. the opera sketch Veneen luominen,
and the Lemminkäinen series by Jean Sibelius.
The 8th symphony burned in Ainola’s fireplace.
Cf. Walter Benjamin’s Das Passagen-Werk.
V. Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal.
August Strindberg went through Inferno in Paris.
Cf. the letters of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux.
V. Jiři Langer’s Devět bran (The Nine Gates).
Cf. Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.
Hamina is round and has a yellow town hall.
Greensleeves is an old English folk ballad.
Cf. the humours in the works of Aristotle.
Latin Lover is an old song title (from 1998).
Brunetto Latini was Dante Alighieri’s teacher.
Giordano Bruno was called the Nolan.
Proserpina is the goddess ”Natura”.
V. Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno,
and the icon of the Mother of God of Valaam.
DEDICATIONS & APOLOGIES
Dedications were taken from
handwritten notes here and there
in the original script
There are verses or lines that have been dedicated to certain people and years, and I wanted to thank them with my signature apologies. At the same time, each poem has too many layers to count, and themes change within a few words. I’d like to remind you humbly that there is another list, though not written here. It is found from the heart, and much longer than this. If your name is (not) on the list, forgive me for letting you......
All photographs taken by Antti Filppu (except Johann Weichard von Valvasor's Duino engraving, Karl Friedrich Lessing's Homecoming Crusader, the Philermo church in Rhodes, Sandro Botticelli's Madonna of the Pavilion and Raphael's Madonna of Foligno).
I MAY / LETTER & POEMS: Casa di Dante, Florence, June 2012 II NO MYSTIC LOVE SONGS: Kariye Camii (Saint Saviour in Chora) and Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, August-September 2009 III MALTA ROMANCE: Malta, October 2011 IV SWEDENBORG: Stockholm, March 2017 V YEATS: Tübingen and the swan of Neckar, March 2006, The Book of Amber and old notes VI RILKE: Trieste, January 2016 VII AUTUMN VERSES: Töölö, Helsinki, autumn 2010, Kariye Camii (Saint Saviour in Chora), Istanbul, September 2009 VIII MORE LEAVES: Töölö, Helsinki, September 2015 IX SATURNIA-VULCANIA: Lemnos, September 2009 and Mayflower in Hamina, August 2019 X THE CRUSADER / THE PILGRIM: Kariye Camii (Saint Saviour in Chora), Istanbul, September 2009, Inferno and Commedia, Florence, June 2012, XI SONGS OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP: Kariye Camii (Saint Saviour in Chora), Istanbul, September 2009, Alppila and Töölö, Helsinki, 2007 and 2010, Malta, October 2011 XII LETTERS WRITTEN: I The Book of Lyrics, chapter 2, Back in the Cafe II Töölö, Helsinki, autumn 2010 III Paros, September 2007 IV Broke in Zürich, April 2009 V The Book of Wor(l)d Lyrics, at the grave of Elias Lönnrot, Sammatti, August 2016 VII A garden in Alppila, Helsinki, September 2007 VIII Töölö, Helsinki, autumn 2010 IX Old Prague, April 2011 X Near Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome, June 2012 NOTES Inside the Valaam cloister old church, July 2009, The Book of Wor(l)d Lyrics, Paradiso and Commedia, Florence, June 2012 /// The copper leaf made by Antti Filppu in 2015, the astrolabe is real (by Hemisferium), purchased from Alnilam in Helsinki
Spiritual Copyright Antti Filppu 2019
Contact: antti.filppu at gmail.com
All that the planets
Embrace within their orbits,
Whatever they shed their light on,
Marks the scope of what it is
For you to attain and achieve.
-Wolfram von Eschenbach / Parzival
(English translation by Arthur Thomas Hatto)
