Two Modes in Tramp Time

The Epic 

It’s too bad 

You were destined 

For greater things. 

The Lyric 

Perhaps but why is it 

The less I say, 

The better 

Everything becomes. 

Two Poems by George Seferis

10.

At the hour when dreams come true,

at the first sweet glimmer of dawn,

I saw lips that opened

leaf by leaf.

A slim sickle shone in the sky.

I feared it would mow them down.

from “Summer Solstice,” part three of Three Secret Poems,

translated  by Walter Kaiser.

*

The Jasmine

Whether it gets dark

or light

the jasmine stays

always white.

Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.

NB: Some down-to-earth observers of the heavens will note that the sickle framed in jasmine is setting in the west and not rising in the east but that shouldn't distract them from noticing the celestialness of these two pieces.

Antisthenes the Cynic

Doglike. That’s me, 

Which brings me 

To my next point— 

Why are you barking 

Up this tree when 

All you wanted 

Was to piss on it?

Song of Innocence

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Tell me whose fair children,
In cool cauldron tall, once sang
Carefree with naked innocence all.

Hard As Rock Provenance

Where you can

Still stand where

You come from,

No matter where

Or how

Hard that is. 

The Heights of Fancy

We know

The poet’s voice has reached

Its pinnacle when

We can hear a pin

Drop here down below.

Poetry Only As Old As You Feel

The Poet as Methuselah

—for Joe Hutchison

Honestly, I’m an old man

But I’m not really

That old.

I was just

Feeling my age when

These lines came to me,

Forever young.