Of the innumerable
Times you have
Fallen prey
To your own
Indifference to the world
Around you, you should
Have noticed by now
How it is
These recurrent lapses
Of your “better”
Self reveal
Their selves
Through the manner
In which they move
Across your smug sleeping
Visage come the first
Light of day—though
You can’t see it, you do
Sense there’s something
Out there trying
To work it-
Self out through you
From under a skin so
Thick it can’t
Tell the difference
Between night and day.
Wow. This is magnificent, Vassilis. "There's something / Out there trying // To work it- / Self out through you...." This mystery is something many of us feel and, like you, are unwilling to name. Naming may be the wrong response, after all. All we can do is turn people's attention in its direction, which you do beautifully here.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Joseph! BTW, speaking of "naming", do you remember a Henry Reed poem called "Naming of Parts"? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThis is another fabulous Zambaras poem! I am reminded of Z poems from decades ago that also concern light, such as this one from AURAL:
ReplyDeleteAs if the light
weren't
answer enough
just to live
by, asking it.
And this poem, from THE INTRICATE EVASIONS OF AS, is also relevant to a frequent Zambaras concern of being fully alive:
Nightingales near
the river.
No superfluous noise.
-- Of course one Zambaras virtue is no superfluous syllable, much less word. "Quotidian" is another poem that merits a completely upper case BRAVO!
Thanks so much, John, for the comments; one more comment on this particular poem from another reader and I shall have to bring up what Henri Michaux told Seferis when the two met briefly in Athens many years ago! Our mutual friend, Bob Arnold, had a blog entry last year about that meeting concerning the poet's audience and it's worth taking another look just to put the question of "audience" in its proper perspective. Here's the link.
Deletehttp://longhousepoetryandpublishers.blogspot.gr/2016/06/george-seferis-and-henri-michaux-meet.html