election

Standard

Election
–Andrei Codrescu

Luminosity is an issue
perhaps a platform.
This is my love song
to the owl.
I enter the closet at dawn
to follow the funeral of a century.
It is a question of going back
to the house without doors

Photo by Dominik VO on Unsplash

vierge moderne

Standard

Vierge Moderne

–Edith Södergran

I am no woman. I am a neuter.
I am a child, a page-boy, and a bold decision,
I am a laughing streak of a scarlet sun…
I am a net for all voracious fish,
I am a toast to every woman’s honor,
I am a step toward luck and toward ruin,
I am a leap in freedom and the self…
I am the whisper of desire in a man’s ear
I am the soul’s shivering, the flesh’s longing and denial,
I am an entry sign to new paradises.
I am a flame, searching and brave,
I am water, deep yet bold, only to the knees,
I am fire and water, honestly combined, on free terms…

Original

Jag är ingen kvinna. Jag är ett neutrum.
Jag är ett barn, en page och ett djärvt beslut,
jag är en skrattande strimma av en scharlakanssol…
Jag är ett nät för alla glupska fiskar,
jag är en skål för alla kvinnors ära,
jag är ett steg mot slumpen och fördärvet,
jag är ett språng i friheten och självet…
Jag är blodets viskning i mannens öra,
jag är en själens frossa, köttets längtan och förvägran,
jag är en ingångsskylt till nya paradis.
Jag är en flamma, sökande och käck,
jag är ett vatten, djupt men dristigt upp till knäna,
jag är eld och vatten i ärligt sammanhang på fria villkor…

Photo by Luis Graterol on Unsplash

the meaning of simplicity

Standard

The Meaning of Simplicity

–Yannis Ritsos

I hide behind simple objects so you may find me,
if you do not find me, you will find the objects,
you will touch those objects my hand has touched,
the traces of our hands will mingle.
 
The August moon gleams like a tin kitchen kettle 
(what I am telling you becomes like that),
it lights up the empty house and silence kneeling in the house
silence is always kneeling.

Every single word is an exodus
for a meeting, cancelled many times,
it is a true word when it insists on the meeting.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

 

 

 

absence presence

Standard

Absence, Presence

–Luisa A. Igloria

Every absence is an ancestor: speak to it,
ignore it, feed it, turn it out of doors,
it will not matter— It knows where you live,
which side of the pillow you prefer in sleep,
where you buy eggs and milk and toilet
paper. It knows whom you last kissed on the mouth,
how you cried to read that poem written by
your daughter, your bewilderment at the stroke
after stroke of bad luck that came the year
you decided to say I do to your green, unproven
heart. The roses in the garden bloomed and withered,
and then came back. Dormant doesn’t mean dead,
only sleeping. Winter is another form of absence,
some say a kindness: substituting white
after white for all the gutted fields before
their softening in spring. Absence, presence—
I bow to you my ancestors; I stoke the fire
and save the bones for soup in these cold months
when I am most reminded I am your kin.

 

Photo by Dominic Sansotta on Unsplash

 

 

definition of

Standard

Definition of Attraction

–János Pilinszky

On a fully broken-in animal’s back
a fully broken-in animal rides.

 

Photo by Alfredo Mora on Unsplash

 

 

pupation

Standard

Pupation
–Fleur Adcock

Books, music, the garden, cats:
I have cocooned myself
in solitude, fatly silken.
Settled?
I flatter myself.
Things buzz under my ribs;
there are ticklings, dim blunderings.
Ichneumon flies have got in.

Photo by Koen Eijkelenboom on Unsplash

 

 

.