Poems

I like you calm, as if you were absent,and you hear me far-off, and my voice does not touch you.It seems that your eyelids have taken to flying:it seems that a kiss has sealed up your mouth.Since all these things are filled with my spirit,you come from things, filled with my spirit.You appear as my … Read more

I remember you as you were in the last autumn. You were the grey beret and the still heart.In your eyes the flames of the twilight fought on.And the leaves fell in the water of your soul. Clasping my arms like a climbing plantthe leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.Bonfire of … Read more

I want you to knowone thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, … Read more

You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?and the rain repeatedly spatteringits words and drilling them fullof apertures and birds?I’ll tell you all the news. I lived in a suburb,a suburb of Madrid, with bells,and clocks, and trees. From there you could look outover Castille’s dry face:a leather ocean.My house … Read more

In my sky at twilight you are like a cloudand your form and colour are the way I love them.You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lipsand in your life my infinite dreams live. The lamp of my soul dyes your feet,the sour wine is sweeter on your lips,oh reaper of my evening song,how solitary … Read more

Littlerose,roselet,at times,tiny and naked,it seemsas though you would fitin one of my hands,as though I’ll clasp you like thisand carry you to my mouth,butsuddenlymy feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips:you have grown,your shoulders rise like two hills,your breasts wander over my breast,my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thinnew-moon line of your … Read more

It’s good to feel you are close to me in the night, love,invisible in your sleep, intently nocturnal,while I untangle my worriesas if they were twisted nets. Withdrawn, your heart sails through dream,but your body, relinquished so, breathesseeking me without seeing me perfecting my dreamlike a plant that seeds itself in the dark. Rising, you … Read more

Si de pronto no existes,si de pronto no vives,yo seguiré viviendo. No me atrevo,no me atrevo a escribirlo,si te mueres. Yo seguiré viviendo. Porque donde no tiene voz un hombreallí, mi voz. Donde los negros sean apaleados,yo no puedo estar muerto.Cuando entren en la cárcel mis hermanosentraré yo con ellos. Cuando la victoria,no mi victoria,sino … Read more

The QueenI have named you queen.There are taller than you, taller.There are purer than you, purer.There are lovelier than you, lovelier.But you are the queen. When you go through the streetsNo one recognizes you.No one sees your crystal crown, no one looksAt the carpet of red goldThat you tread as you pass,The nonexistent carpet. And … Read more

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad netstowards your oceanic eyes. There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames,its arms turning like a drowning man’s. I send out red signals across your absent eyesthat smell like the sea or the beach by a lighthouse. You keep only darkness, my distant female,from your … Read more