On clear days
The sky is
Brilliant blue,
The harbour’s colours
Shine in the
Canal’s reflections
Where yachts are moored,
Masts high.

But when it rains
A curtain of fog
Descends upon
The city
And across canals
The distant blur
Of blinking lights
in the mist.

Copenhagen,
I am not sure
What to think
of you
There is great beauty
By harbours and
In parks,
Along canals.

But you have
Blank windows
And unmarked
Houses,
Uninspiring roads,
Few cosy streets
Save lovely
Sidewalk cafés.

Maybe it is me –
I have not seen enough.
I do not appreciate
Your charm,
I ask for too much.
But in the end I wonder
If there is something
Missing.

To be or nor to be?
That is the question
As the sun glows orange,
let that be a lesson

The world is a nutshell
And infinite space
Stretches out before you,
If you’d care to pace.

The castle of legend
Basks in sunlight
Roofs and green turrets
Against the blue sky

Hundreds of windows
In neat little rows
Looking out, a prince
That’s how the story goes

Behind red curtains
Within draughty walls
Are murders with poison
Or death by the sword

A prince in the night
Saw spectres and ghosts,
Fell into madness,
He who loved most.

He balanced life and death
On the edge of a sword
Paralysed with the weight
Of killing his lord

His friends became spies,
His dearest turned mad
Drowned in a river,
Too young and too sad

Fragility of life
Against almighty death
In his hands is a skull
That once drew breath

That is the story,
It is not true,
But I sit and gaze,
As is my due.

By the famed castle
Towering above
I write about Hamlet
With whom I’m in love.

This castle was his,
Where he lived and he died
By poison and sword
With a friend by his side.

Goodbye noble Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark,
On literature and myth
You’ve left your mark.

Yet Elsinor stands,
It always has, and will.
The birds soar past turrets,
I watch, sitting still.

[Written 1/11/16 in Helsingor, Denmark, home of the castle that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet]

Category: Denmark

COPENHAGEN :: enigma