Etheridge Knight
Etheridge Knight: was born in 1931 in Corinth, Mississippi. He started writing poems when he was an inmate at Indiana State Prison in the early sixties and went on to become one of the most inspiring black poets of our time. He was a master of the Oral Tradition, and mesmerized his audiences with the power of his words. He died on March 10, 1991 in Indianapolis, Indiana, surrounded by people he loved.
Acque di Venezia
by Gary Lawless
Tutto e’ Sacro.
Benedetta la Laguna, la dolce Santa Lucia.
Benedetti gli uccelli, i pesci,
Benedetti gli alberi delle isole lontane,
Bennedette la onde e il vento.
Mandate le navi da crociera all’inferno.
C’e ancora posto la’
Per un’altra barca
Venice Blessing
Everything is Holy.
Bless the Lagoon, sweet Saint Lucy.
Bless the birds, the fish,
Bless the trees on the outer islands,
Bless the waves and the wind.
Send the cruise ships to Hell.
There is room there
For one more boat.
Translated by Giuseppe Moretti
Birds of Greece
by Gary Lawless
on Delos where
Apollo and Artemis were born —
where Magpie, on a column,
flew as a Dark Bird.
Delos of Dry Stone,
where Gods Rise from Rock —
dolphins and lizards,
Lions to welcome
the Gods of Light —
wild herbs, and the birds, the birds
flying through the Sacred,
every day.
Pierre Joris
Pierre Joris: most recently published The Book of U (poems, with Nicole Peyrafitte), The Agony of I. B.(a play), An American Suite (early poems), Barzakh: Poems 2000 –2012, and Breath turn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan. Microliths: Posthumous Prose by Paul Celan is forthcoming from attem verlag.