{"id":26332,"date":"2026-06-18T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stadtsprachen.de\/de\/?post_type=stsp_text&p=26332"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:25:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:25:32","slug":"reflections-along-the-spree","status":"publish","type":"stsp_text","link":"https:\/\/stadtsprachen.de\/en\/text\/reflections-along-the-spree\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections Along the Spree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(six poems from the aforementioned title)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEGEL<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

atop of a chimney
no smoke
constructed by cement,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bricks and steel
        [still] symmetrically atoned
towards the horizon\u2019s enclave<\/p>\n\n\n\n

another star passes by
fading, tilting above a grey
wind that sighs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin, September 24, 1984<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n



SPANDAU<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

that unspoken impetus 
inside this medieval armor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a Cyrillic alphabet forgotten yet
not forsaken near the outskirts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of Speer\u2019s imprisoned Geist,<\/em> smiling
into cracked pavements & buildings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where conquering Teutonic Knights
failed to kneel & kiss a basin\u2019s crevice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

lost alongside incessant crusades   
& holier promises that no longer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

relate to its Hanseatic League\u2019s pride
And, here they claim \u201cthe crime rate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rises\u201d as their waterfronts decrease\u2026
when nowadays no canal seems akin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to venues made by Dutchmen ages
ago \u2013 as an afterthought persists \u2013 intact<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin, 29 September 2025<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n



CHARLOTTENBURG<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Weekends)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elbows dragging on a tired wooden desk
An electric bulb, no substitute for fire
Glasses forgotten in the bottom of a bag
Eyes heavy, like sacks of salt
A chance to be, to have a beer
Words and worlds unraveling worries as
Memories from Friday seep into Sunday <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin, May 2008<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n



ALT-MOABIT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Song of Refugees)<\/em>
Ode to Albert Ostermaier<\/strong>
“Pain makes hens and poets cackle.\u201d<\/em> \u2013Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frequency of noise aired on the monitor blocks
my midnight\u2019s lust for words, as I return to face
the demons of verse: that politicians no longer amuse me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, on my Phoenician journey, tears that seep
in the presence of \u00c6neas\u2019 grief gives its trending
torpor towards corpses of women left to rot in Aleppo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We worry daily why the weakened hearts we bare
must function at all. I took my heart for granted, till
it was pierced by pins and tubes and greed. Horrific\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spiritual awakening it was \u2013 possibly the closest thing
I\u2019d experienced in my life \u2013 as to value just how feeble
raped women might feel. Yet, for innumerable victims<\/p>\n\n\n\n

akin to wars and soldiers trapped in their regiment of
stupidity, such pain becomes pain crippling the nerves
unlike any obtained in a dysfunctional existence. Scars<\/p>\n\n\n\n

do not shift. Seconds pause. Silence on my laptop.
I see an exile posts their newfound freedom\u2026screaming
from Vivaldi to Tupac to Gr\u00f6nemeyer apropos Apple\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

this could be para-para-paradise<\/em>, para-para-paradise<\/em>
para-para-paradise ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh\u2026<\/em>
this<\/em> could be [a] paradise that\u2019ll be taken away forever.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin, 11 March 2016  <\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n



TIERGARTEN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

i see a victorious angel in the distance
from here: a seized spree\u2026
alone\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

alone along renewed paths and waterways
aiming arms at all its rare
but palpable uncertainties<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and i clasp a Nordic breeze like no other
as it passes nearby,
as its stoic mood becomes stale and odd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as its creek\u2019s reeked breath grasps my nostrils,
as if it\u2019s to alter heaven\u2019s stairways, somehow, secular
as well as my Will this morning to survive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Die Siegess\u00e4ule<\/strong><\/strong>: November 1982<\/h6>\n\n\n\n



KREUZBERG<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If Greenwich Village had a nobler sister she\u2019d exist here. And,
although Arabs, Turks, Kurds, and Persians are mistaken as one<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the same, a haunting carnage of odious and callous alleys lies
where treacherous tunnels and history submerge to repeat itself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

yet not without malice\u2026 within its aftermath of oppression.
Yes, sad to say, too high a percentage goes astray: the young<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turk, his Istanbul neither an Ithaca or Troy or Jerusalem
he\u2019s yet seen: he goes rogue, his own way, a way far removed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

from his father\u2019s flea markets and construction sites:
manipulating sentiment, manipulating weaponry, not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

destined to go broke, going rogue he\u2019ll go big, he\u2019ll scrape
weed & crack & opium\u2026for ecstasy & hot rides<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with Slavic assailants and models needing visas to test the West<\/em>
from the post-cold-war-trenches of Kottbusser Tor: to Neuk\u00f6lln.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clich\u00e9s? And on his days off, he\u2019s going up to an unkept world
near Gesundbrunnen: an Opa\u2019s and Oma\u2019s blessings altered by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Mephistophelian pace to his urban-beat & gangster-mind-set
he\u2019s succeeded cultivating into global productivity. Nevertheless,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

street gangs won\u2019t blot those battered fa\u00e7ades forever,
for the pulse here locks into a cacophony of Kurds going<\/p>\n\n\n\n

head-to-head against Turks\u2026that\u2019s ingeniously distended into
vast resources of cordial canals channeling Hope & Brotherhood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin: May 2, 1997<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(six poems from the aforementioned title) TEGEL atop of a chimneyno smokeconstructed by cement, bricks and steel        [still] symmetrically atonedtowards the horizon\u2019s enclave another star passes byfading, tilting above a greywind that sighs Berlin, September 24, 1984 SPANDAU that unspoken impetus inside this medieval armor a Cyrillic alphabet forgotten yetnot forsaken near the outskirts of Speer\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26491,"template":"","categories":[70,11],"class_list":["post-26332","stsp_text","type-stsp_text","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-35","category-lyrik"],"yoast_head":"\nReflections Along the Spree - stadtsprachen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stadtsprachen.de\/de\/text\/reflections-along-the-spree\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale:alternate\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reflections Along the Spree - 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