cyclical poems by
Augusta Laar & Birgit Kempker
Summers End
starting with summer
how should you mourn its passing?
the loss of daylight
a crack-of-dawn walk along
what you’ve done and what you’ve missed
starting with your face
how should you mourn its fading?
a girl is ageing
maybe she’s a hag by now
kinky and extravagant
Augusta Laar
summary the end
remember all and put
it in a bag and fre
not nice but helps
destroy the enemies
in your bed insects
parasites and humans
biting you in the private
parts and leg down you
grab with your hands the
old old mattress and rip
it apart stuf it in black bag back
to fre in the waste incineration
plant messed up incarnation
plan not completed language
shows back to your face
in the mirror you cry
what is left of
the girl once which also
felt ugly but now it is
decay you had no time
to moan and do it
now because there is
still something staying
in beauty and with you
even yourself some parts
are untouched by evil
it will not be for ever
oh Eva take this flthy joke
do a better one
do a poem and write
just moan and do it
just burn that shit
just come
back to
music
Birgit Kempker
Sum & Something
feat. Ella Fitzgerald
where do we go from here?
which ferry can we take?
heading for a dark place
ain’t nothin’ but the blues
everything will be fine
sum
what you owe
what you get
what you spend
what you give
what you take
what you merge
what you avoid
lurching between islands
on each pier a festive group
bridal whites & glossy suits
ain’t nothin’ but the blues:||
everything will be fine
something
to go down
to gain
to bury
to blow in the air
to count
to sleep on
to hide
to throw away
a wedding or a funeral
where do we go from here?
which ferry can we take?
ain’t nothin’ but the blues:||
everything will be fine
Augusta Laar
Nothing must be fine
you marry you stay alone
you take the train or car
you have children or dolls
you live in a house or a
caravan in foreign country
you prefer the ocean
you love mountains and
the night you love sun and
daylight you stay away from
danger you must be in danger
you stay awake all night
you enjoy endless dreams
you eat and drink too much
you fart or you dance you undress
often in public you behave smart
or dull you believe in God in
gold you believe in money or
endless honey over your body
in smelling lost low pubs your body
in bang bang or romantic situation
you feel home or lost or even
not lost enough because you
live in your own not foreign country
you like boys or girls or to cut
yourself or prefer suicide not and then
relax: nothing must be fne
you fight with your shadow
you fight with the hole in your
body and soul emptiness you fight
with your ancestors and your baby
you do not like yourself at all
there is no such thing as
this way or that one that
ferry that bridge this ship
left right or above there is no
companion path no intuition nor
right or wrong or even suitable
Bauchgefühl the german compass
remember: nothing must be fine
forget Kafka there are a lot of
personal closed doors you can not enter
not open too even the entering of the
perfect door is not the beginning
of a perfect day relax and follow
what follows you and do not believe
on order but you never should not
love numbers all of them false
language must be loved immediately
by all of you because you are all
the stuf the belief the friends is you
Birgit Kempker
Summer is Ex
she cries
she sighs with bright eyes
all over paradise only
in her exboyfriend jeans – im schlussverkauf
she sat in the tube and cried
with her exboyfriend jeans
lurching over the top
stop here stop now
ooooops
what?
does she?
she twines her whole lovestory
into a wreath – foral oral – she’s living with fowers now
witnessing the eruption of a real condition
windshield wipers striking back
what?
does she?
she’s also been a sniper
her interior is all exterior
she exercises the pleasure of refusal
she’ll not shame it – ooooops
Augusta Laar
Augusta Laar lives in Munich and Vienna. She is a writer, visual artist, musician. Founder and Head of the Shamrock salons and festivals for poets and of the Shamrock Film festivals. Most recent awards include: Bavarian Culture Prize 2022, Anita Augspurg Prize from the City of Munich for Schamrock e.V. 2021. Recent publications: Nocturnes – Interverntions, Vienna 2024, messages against sleep, Vienna 2021, Avec Beat, Munich 2020, Spinning Records, Ledbury/UK 2019, Best Friends. Exhibition catalog, Munich 2019.
Birgit Kempker was born in Wuppertal in 1956. She lives in Basel and researches: word, image, sound, space, idea, concept and awareness. She teaches and mentors at FuF, School for Experimental Design Zurich, Swiss Literature Institute Biel and Fine Arts/FHNW Basel. Most recently: holidays from suicide, a fantastic journey with Iggy Pop, Radio SRF 2020. Spirit of Embarrassment, 2022, meet thy spirit, a multimedia ebook from Esther Hunziker's digital publishing house, electrfd.net, free download there; the German house, 2024, opposite chickens, 2024.