Reproduced by permission of the poet and translators. Find the translation of the whole poem here. The “Poems for…the wall” website has a bilingual version on its home page. It can be viewed (and downloaded from) here. Thanks to the PEN Ukraine team for helping in this.… continue reading
Category terrorism
HATRED : A SESTINA by Robert Friend
Hatred is wanting to hurt and its fulfillment dancing on someone’s grave. Because the insult was grave, I must repay hatred with hatred, abandon all pleasure: the dancing, the flirting, the wallowing wantings of every day. How drab their fulfillment when compared with the pleasure to hurt. I plan to avenge the hurt if it takes all my… continue reading
Going to Work
The leaves are sodden they’ll take
months to become useful again.
I bagged them today
in a world so warm
I used my fingers to rake
the grass clear of their wet colours.
I imagine them now as I write
with the wind getting up
and the fox stirring for his scavenge through the dark :
there will be… continue reading