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Tag: life

Student association

Published by Ondrej on August 27, 2021

It’s quite something when you meet a kindred spirit
And quite something more when you meet many of those
so many conversations you hear only a snippet
you want to hear them all as from the table you rose

The table is like those imagined long ago
a length of many metres or feet
(Depending on if you talk about ISO)
the people sitting around you try to greet

But there’s just so many interesting folk
There’s no time to daddle,
Almost not enough time to talk
About Sweden’s strange game of padel.

Temporarily found (2/3)

Published by Ondrej on August 22, 2021

For months have I wondered
(the inner world)
looking this way and that,
into every fleeting, passing thing
into brief glances, briefer smiles
looking but not seeing
not feeling, not understanding
just passing.

Worrying about each and every one of those moments
and yet—there was an instant
not a dozen hours prior
in which, for the first time in weeks, even years
the emotions weren’t fleeting
nor were they leaving, nor are they now.

The harmony of all your features
not perfect, but just right
just as they should be—
that’s what made you so special.

For the first time in many a day
hope was kindled where hope was hidden
(not gone, but in hiding)
it came back, first trepidatious, then bounding!
…only to find your departure imminent…

I joked to myself that “I would move Heaven and Earth for her” only happens in poor soppy tragicomedies
For the first time (feels like maybe ever), that sentence, that thought occurred to me.

A fleetingly permanent emotion, perhaps,
true all the same.

A Norwegian Girl (1/3)

Published by Ondrej on August 22, 2021

I long struggled to find words to describe
the sheer bliss of gazing up into her eyes
no colour in the world is so crystal
not even brightly polished amber by the most skilful artisans
a blue so bright, so humble, so piercing
the crisp winter sky pales in comparison
this sky, such a radiant blue on a January day
with her, it is a bleached grey
such was her beauty
such was her poise.

A summer’s dawn

Published by Ondrej on August 10, 2021 
Lying in bed with that mosquito scratch
If summers are anything to go by 
it wouldn't perform a miraculous stretch
on anyone’s mind that she said goodbye

Others’ summers can be filled with intimacy
feeling one another’s humid, stale breath
my ones, hah, are filled with plenty of numeracy
and a typical lover’s shibboleth

The bite on my foot still itches wildly,
and that’s summer I suppose
to put my feelings on paper, mildly, 
there’s a solution my soul will endlessly propose

And that ticked-off list, that key
is something repulsively elusive
That key I’ve failed to look for and to see
Like the idea of you, terribly seductive.

I suppose the endless global ailment
Will cease at some point
So I can seek what my dreams meant
and look for her, my heart’s anoint

Till then, it’s more accounting for numbers
And looking for where they’ve gone
and striving for restful slumbers
this summer’s dawn.

Where all those years went

Published by Ondrej on July 18, 2021

It’s quite hard to put into words
seeing your family far away
your cousins growing up—
remembering them as toddlers
(that image forever etched into your mind)
seeing them become kids, young men,
grow taller than those all around
their voices deepen
and you’re left wondering
or wandering, I’m not sure,
maybe it’s my head wandering,
where all those years went.

It’s hard to digest, to feel
your family far away—
and you don’t think about it,
about them
until you see them through a screen
at the other end of the world.

Bruxelles 2

Published by Ondrej on June 25, 2021

Striding, bounding past June’s leafy trees,
bouncing up the gravel path
the weather with me agrees:
a fitting semester’s aftermath.

But it’s not me bounding nor bouncing up the road
it’s my heart that does
this, the first day does bode
well for the rest of my voyage—fills me with a buzz!

Such euphoria I’ve alas almost forgotten
but coming back brings it back.
Like the softness of tumble-dried cotton
this trip’s soundtrack.

Bruxelles

Published by Ondrej on June 25, 2021

I am back
to the place I missed
did it miss me?
A bustling, crunching, cranking city
I missed this place
its bruits sonores
its smells odeurs
its viennoiseries
its places, cafés, foods,
my family
It’s good to be back, Brussels.

As the sea

Published by Ondrej on May 21, 2021

As Malmö stretches out in front of me
and variform birds shriek undoubtedly
the waves break upon the sandbank
on the edge of nature’s giant fish tank.

As the wind whispers into my left ear
I look upon the empty wooden pier
now the wind shrieks and shouts
leaving no place for my echoing doubts.

As the agèd gentleman’s bicycle creaks by
and the elderly couples stroll by and sigh
the jugged, sharp edges of granite
are woven into nature’s fabric knit.

As the wind whispers (or does it shout?)
and the salty air circles roundabout
in an endless fight with the seagulls
looking down upon us fools.

Discovered poem 1

Published by Ondrej on April 13, 2021

Mornings with a steaming cuppa tea
crispy pain au chocolat, my favourites
(you can hear them crackle)
a newspaper, sitting by the fire
thinking about what it all means.

The grip of true conversation
warms my heart
be it with friends, family or a lover
these have been much forsaken lately
Discussion where we’re vulnerable
and think candidly aloud
are a true breeding ground
for bonds between good people to be bound.

This poem is part of a series of rediscovered poems, i.e. poems I found lying around and to which no date nor title have been attributed previously. This particular poem was likely composed in February or March 2021.

The people you meet

Published by Ondrej on April 13, 2021

Some people value experiences
visiting the Great Wall or the Eiffel Tower;
many value fiduciary occurrences:
if the market’s down, their faces sour.

Me, yes, I can be all of those, and probably am
I too like the nice trip or delicious dinner
but there is something which I mean to be no epigram
something to which experience acts as an amplifier.

It is as simple as the people you meet,
the beings in your everyday (or not)
it is very often them who urge you into the driving seat
and through them many life lessons are taught.

So I mean it most sincerely when I smile
go out and about and walk many a mile
and you will find your crowd, your kindred spirits
those truly worth each other’s merits.