TORSTEN SCHWANKE
I
Oh Lord, my offering
may please Thy heart,
When I come to Thy
altar in Thy house.
Please send Thy
Wisdom in my bitter smart,
She shall console me
with her love, my godly spouse!
Here is no woman
spending me her love,
Her are no boys me
calling lovely dad.
But Love who sun and
moon above dost move,
Love will awaken all
the lovely dead.
Thou, Lord, Thou art
my only friend, my only
Beloved in the
heavens and on earth.
Have mery, Lord,
because I am so lonely,
The gospel brings me
so much pain, no mirth.
I consecrate myself
to Thee alone,
Thou hast myself Thy
Love and Mercy shown.
II
I am a prisoner of
Virgin Mary,
I am alone in this
my darkest tower.
Once Merlin so
imprisoned by the faery,
We are the prophets
in the lonely bower.
What did the world
with all its vanity
Say to the verses of
my meditation?
They laugh about my
ill, insanity,
No prophecy is heard
in this my nation.
I weep and mourn in
this my spirit's night,
My rosary is my
meditation's moaning,
A blind old man, I
do not see the light,
Deep is my grief, my
sighing and my groaning.
I love the Lord, as
loved him Jeremiah,
I am the suffering
servant as Messiah!
III
When Lady Wisdom
leaves me all alone,
Then I remember my
Dame Folly's face.
She had so much of
her own beauty shown,
And if she's dead,
she still is full of grace.
How we make love
together in our bed,
It was the beauty in
the youth in spring,
But now my
well-beloved, ah, she's dead,
I give her lovely
ghost my wedding-ring.
And when she comes
to me, a midnight-ghost,
She leads me to the
heavens of my Lord,
Dame Folly loves me
most, she loves me most,
She leads me to the
bible, God's own Word.
Dame Folly leads to
Lady Wisdom me,
She waits for me in
Love's eternity!
IV
Good morning, my
beloved Solomon!
My Lady Wisdom is
waiting at my door,
She is the godly
Nature, three in one,
My mystical beloved
for evermore.
How can I serve
Thee, Mistress, with my songs?
O send to me my
celestiall Muse from above!
The blessed soul of
my beloved belongs
To me in all the
mysteries of Love.
Inspire me a poem
full poetic
With tongues of fire
from the Holy Ghost,
Give me a hymn, an
ode full prophetic,
That I may praise
the Lord from coast du coast.
O Wisdom, I Thy
minstrel want to be
And praise Thee,
Lady, in eternity!
V
Don't think, my
friend, that you are prudent, wise,
The wisdom of the
world is only folly.
God's folly is above
our wisdom's prize,
Become a fool, if
you are melancholy.
Become a fool in
Christ and learn from God
Like children learn
from father and from mother.
Become a fool and
feel the Father's rod,
God's Folly is your
sister, you her brother.
Become a child and
learn from Christ the Child,
Don't think that you
are wise, learn from the Spirit,
Learn from the
Mother of our Lord so mild,
So you can from Our
Lady's Ghost inherit
True Wisdom
(beautiful and golden-curl'd),
Who greater than the
wisdom of the world.
VI
Hence, ye prophane!
God is a mystery,
The holiest of holy
is the Lord,
The Author He of
sacred history,
My mysticall beloved
is the Word.
Newspaper's viewer
and the television,
What do ye know
about the word of God?
No spirit and no
sanctity, no vision
Is yours. You have
to feel the Father's rod!
Ye do prophane the
holy Eucharist,
Our Lady and the
male and female saints.
But me the muse, the
Holy Spirit kissed,
The oil of God's own
Word in me remains.
Yes, Wisdom took
away the seventh veil,
I see Our Lady and I
sing all hail!
VII
You critisize that I
with allegory
To interprete the
holy book am trying,
You do not see the
inner hidden glory,
That you will see
when you are lately dying.
There is a deeper
meaning in the scripture,
That you can
contemplate in godly mystic,
When you are not
enraptured by the rapture
Of God's own Ghost,
you only see the physic.
You're only reading
in the book dead letters,
You do not see the
Soul of every word.
But the historical
meaning, friend, what matters
The matter, when you
do not feel the Lord!
Deep in your inner
soul yo have to look,
Than you can
understand the holy book.
VIII
I am awakend from my
crazy dreams,
And Lady Wisdom I
invoke in prayer.
I see my Lady with
her whitest beams,
Her beauty is so
excellent and rare!
But this our time is
childish, and the fools
Do reign on earth,
they love alone the dish,
Their stomack is
their god, and all the tools
Of God are childish
or are womanish.
I long for manly
wisdom, oh my friend,
A word from jews of
old or ancient greeks.
And daily, daily I
my letters send,
My friend does
answer me near once a week.
Where are the men of
God, the ancient wise? -
O Lady Wisdom in the
morn, arise!
IX
I've seen the Virgin
Mary on the street,
She stood before the
house and spoke with me,
She was so
beautiful, and when we meet,
I thought, that I
the Heavens open see.
Her beauty was a
beauty of a grace
Of ancient greece,
so very soft and sweet,
Immaculate her
tender lightful face,
Her female tender
love was all I need.
I stood there with
the dog, my comrade dear,
She stood before me
with her little boy,
Child Jesus stood
before me, really near,
Six years old, like
a roe so soft and coy.
I took his hand and
went with him the way,
And bade my Lady and
her boy to stay.
X
They love the young
and new, I love the old,
Old God, I love the
peaceful lonliness,
They are ten
thousands, they are manifold,
I am alone with
Mary's tenderness.
I love the silence,
silence of the Lord,
Old music and old
poems, ancient times,
The silence will
alone bring forth the Word,
The rest of soul
alone can bear the rhymes.
They chatter like
the fools and call it Spirit,
They sing their
praise electric, drumming, loud,
I will alone from
ancient times inherit
Old Wisdom, my old
Lady wise and proud.
My wife is old, and
grey her thinner curls,
I love her more than
all the youngest girls.
XI
God Mother is divine
maternity,
God Mother is my
deepest consolation,
We all are children,
a fraternity,
God is the
motherhood for every nation.
Now I will suck the
breats, the breats of glory,
Now I will drink the
milk of consolation.
Isaiah told
prophetic this my story,
Prophetic words, my
deepest animation.
The priests don't
speak about the Motherhood
Of God, don't preach
about the Mother's breasts.
But I believe the
Mother, she is good,
Invides me to her
heavenly bridal feasts.
The priests, the
masculine, don't know my Mother,
The child, who loves
the Mother, is my brother.
XII
All days and nights
is great my misery,
I suffer woe and
pain from endless sorrow,
Oh God, I feel no
more Thy sympathy,
But full of joyance
I will dance tomorrow.
I am the man of
constand sorrow, God,
And in my heart
there is the sharpest knife,
I feel alone the
Fathers wrath and rod,
Melancholy is my
eternal wife.
And like a woman who
a baby bears,
I bear my woe and
bear my daily cross,
Dry in my heart I'm
crying nightlong tears,
Bewailing all my
love and all my loss!
Oh Lord, I am so
lonely and so sad,
My only consolation
are - the dead!
XIII
Oh Lord, my boy
again is my ideal,
Who as a child was
Jesus small and wise,
He wisdom was who in
the cosmos real
Creator was. O Boy,
again arise!
As David said to
Jonathan his brother:
Your love is sweeter
than the love of girls!
So was my little
boy, son of his mother,
A beauty as Apoll
with golden curls.
Now he is fifteen
years old, but yet sweet,
His soul is faithful
and his heart is good,
Oh it is bliss of
heaven when we meet,
Oh Love, and then
I'm in a happy mood.
Now Jesus, bless my
boy, and Virgin Mary!
His blessèd mother
is his guardian-faery.
XIV
Our Lady gives the
grace of prophecy,
The cross, the oil
will teach you everything,
Sing praises to the
Lord in poetry,
And Mary gives to
you the bridal ring.
With open eyes in
boys you will see God,
In women you will
see Our Lady Mary.
So bear your cross
and feel the Father's rod,
Then Mary comes to
you as sweetest faery.
And when you'll be
alone in darkest night,
And when you sweat
the blood of loneliness,
Then comes the grace
of God to you so bright,
Love's brightness
with the sweetest tenderness.
Now give your hand
to Lady Wisdom only,
And you're not
lonely, even when you're lonely.
XV
Don't think about
the dreams, the foolish dreams,
'Cause only fools
them follow n their ways,
Your soul at night
is wandring at the streams
Of Lethe, where
forgotten are your days.
Don't ask the dead
und don't ask oracles,
The evil spirits
will belie your soul,
Don't ask the
horoscop or magic spells,
The witches' wisdom
and Athena's owl.
But ask the Word of
God and it will speak,
You'll see the
Father and his only Son,
You'll hear like
Moses on the sacred peak
The Holy Spirit
speaking on and on.
And when the Word of
God is in you born,
There is a newborn
hope for you at morn.
XVI
There are on earth
so many idiots,
Who in their
blindness thinks themselves as wise,
They in their
blindness love the antique gods,
Pray'd every
morning, Wisdom, O arise!
Dame Folly comes to
them and to their tasks,
They're working for
their stomack and their food,
No flesh to eat the
fool from wise men asks,
As Jesus had not
eaten flesh and blood.
Away, ye idiots, let
me alone,
Go to the doctor, ye
are mental ill.
Make bread, said
Sathanas, out of this stone,
And Jesus ate the
fish, so was his will.
No, Lady Wisdom does
not need this fools,
This idiots on
earth, Dame Folly's tools.
XVII
At midnight will
once come the bridegroom Love,
The prudent virgins
went into the chamber.
O Lord, my heart
with thy Love-Wisdom move,
That I'll be in your
body saced member.
The wise and prudent
virgins, they have oil,
They have the
prayer and the charity,
They are the ball of
Jesus and his toil,
But prudent virgins
are a rarity.
The foolish women
knocking at the door:
We wish to come in
Heaven to the Lord!
But Jesus in his
wrath and anger roar:
I do not know ye,
spoke the Christ his word.
In heaven there are
prudent virgins only
And every virrgin
with the Lord is lonely.
XVIII
As in the church is
reigning God's High-Priest,
So Cesar absolutely
reigns the world.
Our Lady fights
against the evil beast,
Our Lady beautiful
and golden-curl'ld.
In times of anarchy,
demorcracy,
The Lord above ist
one and all alone,
In Heaven's
hierarchy a monarchy
Established is for
ever, God is one!
And in the trinity,
the persons three,
One Nature of the
Godhead, She ist all!
And in the trinity
the Father God will be
Eternal Monarch!
Manhood, hear his call:
Jehovah is the one
and only God,
Who all the
creatures in existence brought!
XIX
The fool says: Mary
is your crazy thought,
Your schizophrenia
sees the Goddess Mary!
We protestants by
grace alone are bought,
We idolize no
goddess and no faery!
But Jesus gives the
answer: This my Mother
Must honoured be by
all the sons of me,
When you will be
God's child and Jesus' brother,
Ye must be sons of
the Virginity!
And ye, who
blasphemes God's own Mother crazy,
Ye think that ye
would come into the glory?
In praises for the
Virgin-Mother lazy,
Ye have to suffer
pain in purgatory!
But I, oh God, will
love thy Virgin-Mother,
Child Jesus in the
womb is my twin-brother!
XX
How can I pray to
God Almighty Lord?
He is the Monarch in
the Trinity,
How can I speak to
the Most High my word,
The souce of cosmos
in his Majesty?
He is so awesome and
so fascinating,
So terrible in his
anger and his rod,
And I am dust and
ashes, ever fading,
I am a nothingness
and he is God!
Oh Mary, help me
praying to the Father,
That Lord Jehova
bless my helpless prayer!
Oh Mary, help me,
sweetest virgin-mother,
That I can ride to
God my wingèd mare!
Oh Mary, pray for
me, your prayer is holy
And I am only weak
and melancholy.