Monthly Archives: January 2015

cachalot

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Poetry

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a darkness and a gleam,
and the blurred reflections of the willows on the opposite bank
received it.
– Amy Lowell, The Pike

Open your
mouth. Gape.
In it I put
cachalot, big
head, sacred
fish, though
cachalot is
neither,
moving streaks
of iridescence
trance, drifting
oar won from
the wave.
Swallow. Kiss
the curve of
my spotty
spine my fins
broad, rose,
black, silver.
Translucent.
Come hold
the sun in
your jaw, glow.

][][

Note:
Cachalot is simply the French term for sperm whale.

marjorie agosín’s “peces”

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Poetry, Spanish, Translation

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Saludo a los peces del mar
respetando su milenaria
genealogía,
sus danzas fugaces y suaves,
los colores que delatan
otros colores,
sus colas iridiscentes
parecidas a los cristales
de las adivinanzas.

Brindo un vaso
de agua
por todos los peces
todavia libres
por su elegante sangre fria
y sus simetrias perfectas.

][][

I greet the fish of the sea
respecting their ancient
tribes,
their fleeting and smooth dances,
colors that reveal
other colors
their iridescent tails
like a fortune teller’s
crystal ball.

I drink a glass
water
for all fish
still free
their elegant coolness
and perfect symmetries.

Marjorie Agosín, “Fish”
– translated by ZJC

the receiver

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Poetry, sonnet

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Be vast beyond the trees. Be transparent.
The dusk was good. You cavort. I am shy.

Give the sky a backward glance, whose crescent
eyes all these road-signs miss but don’t know why.

So what? – a phone will start ringing, humming
about the rain. Word! you say, the devil

will die – but not like this. There’s a graying
vapor, nameless, across the water; dull

with no words left. For how long will you go
without luggage, shoes, road-signs? You can see

through me. I love symbols, signs. Rise. Again,
press your face to mine under the sky. Glow.

Call me Morning Star. In the receiver
you can just hear a busy-sound, like rain.