Magic Words
after Nalungiaq
In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen—
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this:
That's the way it was.
Translated from the Inuit by Edward Field
Reprinted with the permission of Edward Field.
False Spring
an uncanny raucous chirp chirp is heard
as mockful birds suddenly appear making nests
quarrelsome with unexpected matings
and the heady blush of bugs 'n such stir 'n sting anew
enthralled lovers stroll neath a startled blue sky
hayfever aroused prematurely by the lusty santanas
blinds me with sneeze
and my restless lay moves on to moister ground
(and they say i've never known snow)
it is the middle of winter California-style
tell that to the magenta butterflies
blossoms pink and yellow limbs bared scanty weeks ago
even the trees are deceived
Wanda Coleman (b. 1946)
"False Spring" from Hand Dance by Wanda Coleman. Copyright © 1993. Reprinted by permission of the author and Black Sparrow Press.
love is a place
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds
E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
"love is a place" by E.E. Cummings from Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George James Firmage. Copyright © 1935,1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1978 by George James Firmage. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Sonnet
A man talking to his ex-wife on the phone.
He has loved her voice and listens with attention
to every modulation of its tone. Knowing
it intimately. Not knowing what he wants
from the sound of it, from the tendered civility.
He studies, out the window, the seed shapes
of the broken pods of ornamental trees.
The kind that grow in everyone's garden, that no one
but horticulturists can name. Four arched chambers
of pale green, tiny vegetal proscenium arches,
a pair of black tapering seeds bedded in each chamber.
A wish geometry, miniature, Indian or Persian,
lovers or gods in their apartments. Outside, white,
patient animals, and tangled vines, and rain.
Robert Hass
"Sonnet" from Sun Under Wood by Robert Hass. Copyright © 1996 by Robert Hass. First published by The Ecco Press in 1996. Reprinted by permission.
Two Haiku
Don't worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.
Mosquito at my ear—
Does it think
I'm deaf?
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
Translated from the Japanese by Robert Hass
"Don't worry, spiders..." and "Mosquito at my ear..." by Issa, from The Essential Haiku, edited by Robert Hass. Translation copyright © 1994 by Robert Hass. Reprinted by permission of The Ecco Press.
A Girl on the Swing
She sees the mountain
upside down.
With her long hair
sweeping the fallen leaves
she swings
like a pendulum.
From the lagoon at sunset
a hundred sparrows fly away.
Wishing them back
she whistles softly.
And downward
she falls into the sky.
Chungmi Kim
"A Girl on the Swing" by ChungMi Kim. Copyright © 1995. Originally published in Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, Suzanne Loomis and Charles H. Webb, eds. (Red Wind Books, 1995). Reprinted by permission of the author.
| Variación | | Variations |
| El remanso de aire | | The still waters of the air |
| bajo la rama del eco. | | under the bough of the echo. |
| El remanso del agua | | The still waters of the water |
| bajo fronda de luceros. | | under a frond of stars. |
| El remanso de tu boca | | The still waters of your mouth |
| bajo espesura de besos. | | under a thicket of kisses. |
Federico García Lorca (1899-1936)
Translated from the Spanish by Lysander Kemp
"Variations" ("Variación"), translated by Lysander Kemp, from Selected Poems by Federico García Lorca. Copyright © 1955 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted with the permission of the publishers.
Encounter
We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.
And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.
That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Nor the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.
O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.
Wilno, 1936Czeslaw Milosz (b. 1911)
Translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz and Lillian Vallee
"Encounter" from The Collected Poems 1931-1987 by Czeslaw Milosz. Copyright © 1988 by Czeslaw Milosz Royalties, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of The Ecco Press.
Wipe That Simile Off Your Aphasia
as horses as for
as purple as we go
as heartbeat as if
as silverware as it were
as onion as I can
as cherries as feared
as combustion as want
as dog collar as expected
as oboes as anyone
as umbrella as catch can
as penmanship as it gets
as narcosis as could be
as hit parade as all that
as ice box as far as I know
as fax machine as one can imagine
as cyclones as hoped
as dictionary as you like
as shadow as promised
as drinking fountain as well
as grassfire as myself
as mirror as is
as never as this
Harryette Mullen (b. 1953)
"Wipe that Simile off your Aphasia" by Harryette Mullen. Copyright © 1997 by Harryette Mullen. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Red Rooster, Yellow Sky
The grandmother who never spoke
brought me this card from Japan
drawn in a child's hand:
just rooster, sun, and sky.
Under a red sun
the rooster's red body
splits in two uneven parts,
each sturdy black foot
holding its own weight.
It was the year of the rooster
when I was still ten,
learning to stand myself upright—
my own sky rising yellow
like new, uncut lemons.
Amy Uyematsu
"Red Rooster, Yellow Sky" from 30 Miles from J-Town by Amy Uyematsu. Copyright © 1992. Reprinted by permission of the author and Story Line Press.
