Water in the Wilderness

excerpt

The Sisters’ dining room was quiet in the afternoon with only the distant clatter of pans and dishes in the kitchen. Tyne sat with her two former roommates – still her two best friends – at a corner table. Plates of sandwiches and cakes, and a large pot of tea had been placed before them by a novice nun.
Tyne sat back and surveyed the room. It was stark in appearance, but comfortable in which to relax. She had left Aunt Millie at Bobby’s bedside, and come here for the ‘catching up’ that Sister Carol Ann had mentioned two days earlier. She couldn’t help but wonder if she and Moe could ever catch up with, or understand, the kind of life their friend had known for the past four years. But one thing was certain – their Curly appeared happier now than she had since their early days of training.
Sister Carol Ann replaced her plain china teacup in its saucer and leaned across the table towards Tyne. Her pretty face looked eager. “I love the letters you write about the farm, Tyne, especially the ones describing the animals and how you’ve made pets of them.” She chuckled. “How is Jezebel?”
“As ornery as ever. But Morley insists on keeping her. He seems to be able to control her if no one else can. I’m wondering how Jeremy and Dad Cresswell are managing. I hope they’re careful.”

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Nikos Engonopoulos – Poems

Marcinelle
the pigeons are asleep now
and the cyclone rages
amid the wild rustle of the trees
follows the suspicious silence
thunder and cannons echo in the distance
and here it rains
and rips everything
the foliage screams
trees stand ready to leave
and among the wild blackberry bush
opened just like a bare-breasted
old woman
the lighting
reveals
two rotten tree trunks
lying in the mud
bodies of two lovers
with bare branches like arms
that stir
curses
or moans
learn to live
by the peaceful edge
is the bread and the steaming pot
here is the knife
take the knife to cut the bread
take the knife
take the knife, I tell you, worker
tonight
be extra careful, tonight
t h i s n i g h t i s n o t l i k e o t h e r n i g h t s

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Tasos Livaditis – Selected Poems

Prudence
We’ve lived forgotten and unknown vertebrae of tumble down
temples, dark stoas
ancient, wrinkled earth that only promised us an eternal sleep,
and oh, wise prudence of the children, who start their
friendship with the soil early on.

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Introspection

Wonder
Although he wondered whether men of his era truly knew the meaning of inspiration, that creative monad that descended from the heavens and turned man into a vessel of the ineffable
time and again, whether the comfort of a house and a wife and a child and the philosophy of the sofa was the means he had to use to reach his goal, his insubordinate soul knew his path was elsewhere, his tracks had to be made in places he hadn’t been before. This was his call, and he accepted it from the day he left his didactic post to follow his instinct to the edge of logic and the border of insanity, yet this was his choice, to the end of ends, where only the brave dare enter, only the courageous stand unabatedly against all odds and who had their instinct as their guide

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