Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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
Tuesday, September 9, 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
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
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