Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE POET OF THE PRISON ISLE: RITSOS AGAINST THE COLONELS, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE POET OF THE PRISON ISLE: RITSOS AGAINST THE COLONELS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So there you are
Last Line: Just over the border
Subject(s): Prisoners Of War; War; Writing & Writers


So there you are,
Jannis Ritsos,
On that island of pure salt
Where it only rains on the dead.

* * *

Statues of sand statutes
Of gall
Enormous legends of the Platonic Republic founded on gunpowder.

Hush
The Colonels are coming
The King is Coming
Tra La

* * *

Meanwhile you are dying. And harder than in any poem.
Of course we are all trying to keep the frontiers open people are doing
desperate things to save you some people read the times and are indignant some
people read the past and are indignant some madwoman is reading her personal
memoirs personally over WEVD explaining the values of those who put you out
there the first time.
All's ordnung as Ez sez and let's not forget the poets carefully writing in
lowercase and erasing if they hit a capital.

* * *

Well, there are damn few capitols where they might want you
Outside the revolutionary world.
I guess
The poets and all being what they are you'll die where you're at.
A sad thing
Because you are the only one in the world who heard
Those terrible trains in the heads of widows
The trains that carry the conscripts
To that bosses' war -- the one
Just over the border.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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