I was in Greece for a few weeks, and just now catching up with everything.
Dargie, will comment on your poem shortly...
Blue Sky with Teeth
It was after dark in Athens, inside the taxi
we moved into a darker night
soon to be early morning after a full moon
skirting the Acropolis and its dark runes
whose workers-in-arms had locked the gates
betrayed by a promise to access Europe’s rooftop
and this latest wave of dear invaders-
Venetians, Ottomans, Germans, Americans-
marble paths glow slick with the tread of a thousand years
gripping the wheel, the toothless driver sighs
people only believe what they see and hear
though born on this Earth
I am 30% from here and 70% from the stars--
we are each tripartite, a compound of body, soul, and mind
the Devil owns the organs
but not the Soul,
from the Soul he can be barred,
exiled through prayer--
My room at home is barely larger than this taxi
I lie awake alone and try to imagine Him
the Christ who came to earth
for a little August vacation, just like you--
He cast no shadow even at noon on the hottest day
because he is Light
Here and Nowhere and Everywhere at once,
had He been weighed then, He would have weighed nothing
being lighter, being Light itself--
Our sleep is a practice death
our sleep makes life possible
just as death does--
and as the Encephalos combines
signals from all organs simultaneously
so does the Greater Power align all and everyone--
seven billion signals of the Universe into one
We sped along a corridor
that had just opened--
was I conversing with my dead father,
with a toothless taxi driver, who was taking me where--
I didn’t know
(Encephalos
is Greek word for mind)
Vasiliki, it’s always amazing to me what you can learn from taxi drivers! I love the mood of this poem. Somehow it feels cozy, there inside the cab, and after all you are in your home country. Yet there’s a very surreal feel as well. And mystery in the unknowing-ness of the ending. I love the wordplay of “dark runes” as well as “dear invaders”. And I also enjoy the play between dark and light, as well as teeth versus toothless, throughout the poem. The question that popped up for me when I first read it is regarding the taxi driver’s monologue. I wondered if it should somehow be broken up. I tried to think of ways to do that, but anything I could think of seemed to complicate the poem unnecessarily. It just struck me as a lot to take in all at once. But maybe that was your point? A lecture? Does he just launch into this speech apropos of nothing? (I’m sure I must have known this at one time, but I had forgotten that Christ did not cast a shadow. There is fascinating stuff in that monologue: the Devil owning organs but not the soul, ie). The cabdriver’s comment about “a little August vacation“ does link the monologue to the beginning and the ending of the poem for me. I don’t know if any of these observations are helpful to you! If you have any specific questions about the poem, feel free to ask!
ReplyDelete