Nothing Here is Enough

I need veiled eyelids, black lines, and ruined puppets to make geography. I need a sky wider than longing, and water that is not H2O to make wings. More

Pronouns

He plays a train. She plays a whistle. They move away. He plays a rope. She plays a tree. They swing. More

The Cup

She extinguished the lights except one candle and placed her finger on the cup and repeated words like an incantation: O spirit . . . If thou are present, answer Yes. And then… More

The War Works Hard

How magnificent the war is! How eager and efficient! Early in the morning it wakes up the sirens and dispatches ambulances to various places swings corpses through the air rolls stretchers to the wounded summons rain from the eyes… More

Greeting, Slippage, and Shaping

As someone specifically interested in the translation of poetry, of the free verse variety, I will come down squarely on the side of occasional long shots, slippages into the… More

Poems (1945-1971)

The CanaryThey stood him where the harshest wind blowsthey promised him to the froststhey gave him a black dressand a red tiea nail-punctured sun that drippedblack glassesblood… More

The Gifts

Today I put on / a hot red blood / today people love me / a woman smiled at me / a girl gave me a shell / a… More

Miltos Sachtouris: The Soldier

The SoldierI have written no poemsin thudsin thudsmy life rolledOne day I trembledthe next day I shudderedin fearin fearmy life passedI have written no poemsI have written no poemsI… More

“At sunrise I arose . . .”

At sunrise I aroseTo the sound the machine animals makepassing by in the streets over headsWas it briefly interminable orinterminably brief or bothIt was the face ever undone by… More