Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, POEM OF THE DAWN AND THE NIGHT, by RODOLFO DI BIASIO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POEM OF THE DAWN AND THE NIGHT, by                    
First Line: For a night - any night - that bends


I

For a night -- any night -- that bends
or only for an oak
in its agonic shade
toward -- against -- customary stars
one writes
happens again to write
the latch of the window-blind
is the flatus vocis
stamped in the margin
where words overflow
unwritten unsaid
the defenseless word
doleful sign that consigns us to other hands
the few reaching out

Then a dawn seized by chance
in the beating of a shutter
by a voice you know no more
and should
the earthly voice -- the sorrowful one --
if inside there still are relics
of things and people
the same that beat in enigmatic throbs
tremors -- tremors echoed by the night --
and a scented warmth of woman beside you
again she envelops you now and forever
when she changes into astral light
all the light of the stars

A margin -- it's now the dawn's margin --
and the event is only another wait
in the exorcism of dawns and nights
of other dawns and other nights
as customary as the stars
and the oak that imposes
its agonic shade

we the defenseless words
we defenseless, the word

II

The day arrives with its cry
the swelling of the streets
the painful engagements-disengagements
things and things that throng together
not even the sea's sorcery
can unhinge the bitterness inside
the clay thorn
that the word, mine and yours
-- and still defenseless --
removes out of habit
in the sun's luminous arc
when Capricorn yields
and trembles at last on the leaves

The bottle contains no manuscript
no word from across the sea
that speaks of the snow's melting
even the desert
or the heart's fraternal beating
when it captures an instant of time

its glory, its love

III

O to wait for a beyond:
now that a circle of shadow surrounds us, it seems,
and the astral void, reinforced by the wind,
takes us back to the same desert
and watches for rain
the only rain that might dissolve
the languid blood


Used by permission of Story Line Press.




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