WHAT POETRY GIVES, WHAT IT TAKES
What does poetry give and what does it take?
When under the weight of a cloud
all your internal body parts lean sideway
when one glance scratches old wounds
when a new handicap opens new wounds
when the sky’s lanterns shine
at a close distance to your future
and when the pieces of life you’ve saved aren’t enough
when a sorrow that hasn’t yet come tyrannizes you
when pain has neither name nor color
then poetry touches your forehead like a soft hand
and convinces you of your special purpose
that your verse won’t end with your life
that poetry if the accountability of your soul.
Then you take the pen
and you think of being one
with beauty and immortality.
But what sacrifice is poetry asking of you?
What does it want in return?
Only one thing.
Don’t demand anything
of the soil you walk on
you don’t expect reality to reward you
nor to enrich you
with infinite ties nor to become
the way you wish it to be.
You better crave only one thing:
that reality will remain around you and that
you’ll love it being there
even if it is frowning, even if it is grumpy.
Manolis Aligizakis 