Relics of the Magi

three wise men
out of the desert
following a star

In Iran then
called Persia
Marco Polo
out from Venice
in a town called Saveh
found the bodies
saw the bodies
of the three Magi each
in his own sarcophagus,
dry but
" still whole and have
their hair and beards"
the town now
lost, in ruins,
the Magi, gone.

three wise men
out of the desert
following a star

from Constantinople, a gift from
Constantine and his mother Helen,
to Milano and then
to Cologne, bones
of the Wise Men, three
crowns of the city, these
old bones, wrapped in Syrian cloth and
the faint scent of frankincense

three wise men
out of the desert
following a star



("worship makes relics real,
makes them part of reality"
Pentti Saarikoski)

on the Feast Day of Saint Jerome, 2008

poem by Latvian poet Ingmara Balode

for Leva, in Tuja village


Now the hornbeams throw flames in my face.
Shadows.
No boats go fishing today.

Sit.
A storm is gathering at the horizon.
You're stringing bunches and beads
of rowan - and chokeberries
warm your hands.

I could tell you
"the summer is over"
but that's what
you know.


Ingmara Balode
Latvia