no one speaks of how tendrils feed on the fruits
of my demise these dead hands for instance that alight phlox
wild strawberry and pine this is my body out of context rotting in the wrong hemisphere
I died so all my enemies would tremble at my murmur how it populates their homes
so I could say to the nearest fellow dead person I know more than
all my living foes I’ve derived sun-fed design for once from
closing my oak eyes now they’ll never snare the civilian
pullulating my throat
Copyright © 2019 by Xan Phillips. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 26, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.
If it Were lighter touch Than petal of flower resting On grass, oh still too heavy it were, Too heavy!
This poem is in the public domain.
On this voyage into the deep communion of solitude
I’ve casually come to know
the old and withered costumes of the sea;
I’ve walked carefully through the colors of copper
when the dusk has already conjured the last prayer of the day;
Through seasonal doorways
I’ve called upon the twilight ghosts
arched in the corners of the narrow cobblestone streets;
I’ve let my lips evade the necessary verses
to find the ending phrase for the afternoon;
I’ve disarmed the elusive equity of the night
to conceive an intimate verse from its fortified mysteries;
I’ve cast aside the grieving songs of my twilight
as the sky envelops the enamored vestments of the night;
I’ve done
and undone
so many things
in search of you…
Centroamérica en el corazón
Por este viaje a las profundas unidades de la soledad
he conocido sin planearlo
a la vieja vestimenta del mar;
he caminado con cuidado por los colores del cobre
cuando el ocaso ya ha lanzado el último suspiro del día;
he llamado por estacionales puertas
a los fantasmas del poniente
en las esquinas de las calles angostas;
he permitido a mi boca eludir los versos necesarios
para encontrar la frase terminante del atardecer;
he desarmado la equidad profunda de la noche
para concebir un verso íntimo de su faz amurallada;
he desechado los duelos del ocaso
cuando el cielo se cierne sobre el manto enamorado del crepúsculo:
he hecho
y deshecho
tantas cosas
Buscándote…
From Central America in My Heart / Centroamérica en el corazón. Copyright © 2007, Bilingual Press / Editorial Bilingüe, Arizona State University.