God’s cry named us from there
Tomorrow we’ll swim again
tomorrow we’ll travel more
tomorrow the dawn will ask for our endurance
and we’ll respond to the sea
We wrote our first verse in the sand
while the insisting masts looked at us solemnly
and the wave whispered the eternal homecoming
We stood on the rock like busts of escape
staring at the moon designing circles
asking our secret
about ships carrying white shadows
about the endless voyage
about the anchor that didn’t nail the water
We touched our wound and time
and we escaped
The voyage always remains with us
and the endless clamor of the sea
The ships had come with the dawn
loaded with wheat coal and wine
for the dreams of captains
for the food of fire
You threw the bread the wine and coal
and remained naked in the sea
without cloth covering your ribs
without love hiding your eyes
The hour had the color of secret pearl
sunk in the thought of dawn
with distant voices filled with danger and promise
You looked at your body in the water
and you loved the water forgetting your body
Oh voyage without any burden
with fire without coal
with hunger without bread
with thirst and elation without wine
Manolis Aligizakis 