Monthly Archives: March 2014

Relative by Partaw Naderi, translated by Sarah McGuire

I know the language of the mirror –

its perplexities and mine
spring from one race

our roots can be traced
to the ancient tribe of truth

Kabul
February, 1994

(with thank to the Poetry Translation Centre)

Original poem written in non-roman script

The Divine Willy on Opportunity

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on… we must take the current where it serves or lose our venture.”

—Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Everglade Days

The mangrove holds the ocean back,
but takes the sea into its nostrils.

Roots reflected in the water,
a spiny möbius
sipping the tea colored sea.

The night sky bends down under my kayak,
a man in a mosquito tent buffaloes all night next to me.

The prince of storms
is tuning up to the south

like a chorus in Aida
or Sikorsky helicopters shuffling cards.

Tomorrow my pea pod vessel
must bear the weight of my fears.

Planxty Pete Seegar

If there is a world a hundred years from now, it will be in part because of banjo.

–Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

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