Poems

Ancient night and the unruly saltbeat at the walls of my house.The shadow is all one, the skythrobs now along with the ocean,and sky and shadow eruptin the crash of their vast conflict.All night long they struggle;nobody knows the nameof the harsh light that keeps slowly openinglike a languid fruit.So on the coast comes to … Read more

To the solemn sea the old women come With their shawls knotted around their necks With their fragile feet cracking. They sit down alone on the shore Without moving their eyes or their hands Without changing the clouds or the silence. The obscene sea breaks and claws Rushes downhill trumpeting Shakes its bull’s beard. The … Read more

I recall that man and not two centurieshave passed since I saw him,he went neither by horse nor by carriage:purely on foothe outstrippeddistances,and carried no sword or armour,only nets on his shoulder,axe or hammer or spade,never fighting the rest of his species:his exploits were with water and earth,with wheat so that it turned into bread,with … Read more

Oh yes I knew him, I spent years with him,with his golden and stony substance,he was a man who was tired – in Paraguay he left his father and mother,his sons, his nephews,his latest in-laws,his house, his chickens,and some half-opened books.They called him to the door.When he opened it, the police took him,and they beat … Read more

I 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 when … Read more

Love, a questionhas destroyed you. I have come back to youfrom thorny uncertainty. I want you straight asthe sword or the road. But you insiston keeping a nookof shadow that I do not want. My love,understand me,I love all of you,from eyes to feet, to toenails,inside,all the brightness, which you kept. It is I, my … Read more

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance." The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. On nights like this, … Read more

You swallowed everything, like distance. Like the sea, like time. In you everything sank! It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss. The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse. Pilot’s dread, fury of a blind diver, turbulent drunkenness of love, in you everything sank!

The tree is here, still, in pure stone,in deep evidence, in solid beauty,layered, through a hundred million years.Agate, cornelian, gemstonetransmuted the timber and sapuntil damp corruptionsfissured the giant’s trunkfusing a parallel being:the living leavesunmade themselvesand when the pillar was overthrownfire in the forest, blaze of the dust-cloud,celestial ashes mantled it round,until time, and the lava, … Read more

When the trumpet sounded, it was all prepared on the earth, the Jehovah parcelled out the earth to Coca Cola, Inc., Anaconda, Ford Motors, and other entities: The Fruit Company, Inc. reserved for itself the most succulent, the central coast of my own land, the delicate waist of America. It rechristened its territories as the … Read more