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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NOSTOI, by RODOLFO DI BIASIO
First Line: Where - the place of concatenations
First Line: Where - the place of concatenations
I
Where -- the place of concatenations
it's true that spring and fall
still coincide in regenerative flux
or in apparent deaths --
the returns
the projected returns
that the wind or the stirring of the clouds
through the hay's blasted mane
exhumes
At last
the footstep demands its quiet
and the eye plunges deep to where
the tiny, slight creatures of the air
adepts of song
or those of the earth, even snakes
or the sudden hyacinth, the grass or a cliffhanging violet
move about, the very same
unlearned
through follies of desire
The hot broth of living
cures as it does
the chapping of lips
the scent of tart plumcot spreads its health
and the whirl of pollen runs wild
the moisture of the wind
II
It's night, the moment of return, cruel night
of the Dipper clinching stellar solitudes
the nonsense of our few travels
while the neon lights weave
desperation dissipation
which the mercy of the sunrise cannot defeat
the merciful light, the mercy of light
does not annul the poison apples of the night
as shadows endlessly transfix the neon
And the corollas! their tremor
when the mountain wind
rises in a spasm
and desire begins to climb
and the heart dreams the dream of vastnesses
The happy island
there return is denied -- still --
as are the customary stories
the first ones
already Hesperus is weaving
solitudes
III
The sea's desire swells
it seeks lost recognitions
symmetries
the concave moonshores
precipices
the Dutchman's charted course
harbors love unloving
the lone one left alone
it knows how the Southern Cross bends
when the equator turns
and tides extend the motion of the stars
the desolate anabases of desire
Its return depletes:
the firmament's flashings and fadings
cut furrows in the sea
the white vermilion daybreaks
the whites of the ice
the obsession of eternal return
correspond in oarless navigation
Used by permission of Story Line Press.
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