otoliths
a magazine of many e-things
ISSN 1833-623X
20210113
Vassilis Zambaras
FALSE WITNESS TO BIBLIOMANCY
Preoccupied, stupefied
By all I see before me,
I pick a book I believe
To hold truth; I balance it
On its spine and allow it
To fall open; with eyes closed
I pick a passage
And let truth flow back
To the future through my fingers
Till it blinds me.
COMING UPON A HITHERTO UNKNOWN POEM BY SAPPHO
[deterioration highly evident]
heart frag[mented?] yet
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
put together so
[ ]
[ ]
[lovingly?]
[ ]
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perfect [that]
nothing could
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[ ]
[ ]
go to pieces
[rampant moth bites]
[ ]
[ ]
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forever [like?]
[ ] that
[papyrus in fluttering tatters]
CHAINLINK FENCES
—for John Levy
Who writes in a poem
About a drawing why
He liked them as a child
So swell and yet subdued
We can well imagine
Climbing up them even
If our feet are now
Too large and we
Too big for our britches.
FROM A LINE OF KANDINSKY’S
blue
like a snail re
treating in
to its
sh
el
l
SAMPLE ESL ADVANCED LEVEL COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENTS (150-180 WORDS)
Describe a walk your dog enjoyed very early in the morning.
A family with two small children and a dog plan to move from a cottage in the country to a small but modern flat near the town center. What things must they think about before deciding if they are going to make the move? Try to make your writing at once domesticated, rustic and sophisticated.
Write the conversation you have with a very old person who believes that life was more enjoyable when he/she was younger. You disagree about this. Write in dialogue form, giving only the name of each speaker, followed by the words spoken. Do not mention dates or ages.
A British friend has asked you to recommend an author writing in your language whose works he or she would enjoy reading. Write a letter in reply. You should make the beginning and ending like those of an ordinary letter but do not count the address in the number of words. Keep to the subject and avoid flowery language. Contractions count as two words.
Imagine there has been a shocking incident involving indecent people. Describe it using formal language. Be objective as possible.
You have been offered a free ride on a Ferris wheel by a carnival owner. Describe how you would feel upon discovering you are stranded at the top and the wheel is no longer turning. Please do not waffle.
Vassilis Zambaras: b in Greece, returned there after 25 years in the USA; recently retired from teaching ESL at the language school he founded in 1977 in Meligalas. Three small books of poetry: Sentences (Querencia, 1976), Aural (Singing Horse, 1984) and In Credible Evidence, a foldout booklet of poems (Longhouse, 2010). Poems in the anthology How the Net Is Gripped: A Selection of Contemporary American Poetry (Stride, UK, 1992) and Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams, (U of Iowa Press, 2011). Appearances in Poetry Salzburg Review, The London Magazine, First Intensity, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Shearsman, Poetry Northwest, The Galway Review etc. Has an unpublished third collection titled The Intricate Evasions of As.
