Anemone and Vertigo

Anemone and Vertigo Poems of the Selection translated from the Greek by David Connolly

THE SNOW

The one spoke of notes The other of a closed box And yet another said “how unbearable the dark is!” They robbed him as he sat In case the poems came out In case he found the anemone. He’d long been preparing his eyes for a sky filled with snow Then he’d leave the work at that station Then he’d fill his hands with life white as white his own white snow. They robbed him as he sat his mouth bound by always the same rhyme Here the crime and there the poem.

THE PHOTOGRAPH

How your eyes are gaping old hotel Room by room The sun blinking opens and closes your wounds And the water still and heavy makes you float. Drowned longings Tassos Eurydice Kiki Dead voyages Anthi Yannis Diomedes In the mud lies the key The slot is rotting Without blood is the bed – Just look, says the bird from the other song How its eyes are gaping How the living photograph themselves with the dead.

THE MAGIC SCALE

A magic scale defines me The matches light in the dust My eyes light with the matches. The matches go out My eyes go out The dust remains. A magic scale defines me Beyond the photos the anemone flowers Nothing flowers beyond the anemone What remains is nothing The anemone withered once more.