Lost
In the darkest night with
my hoping soul I long to see
the sun I saw for the first time
to just appear before me
now that the wailing
announce the new destruction
I long for the serene hour
and its evening greet
now that snow has spread
like a shroud over dryness
I long for the return
of the faraway swallow
I long for all the lost
and the witch old woman
tells me the shadows that
go away always return.
https://draft2digital.com/book/3562951
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763459
Obstacles
As you get to know me I raise another wall.
It’s not that I don’t want you to find out who I am
it’s not that I want to drive you off.
We only have to understand clearly
how many obstacles we can go over
so that we’ll meet again.
We have to find out how far our endurance can last;
Then, don’t forget that perhaps I don’t
put up the obstacles in front of us, but they exist
on me and inside of me like black scars
that change my shape and my color:
the obstacle of myself against myself.
stowaway in a Dream
I appeared there, I sprouted
though no one ever saw me
I felt impatient
though I had nothing
to long for.
Darkness had dried up
inside me
and I had nothing to use
to nurture my dream
that used darkness
to illuminate the light
of life.
only a neutral color
covered the stone of
my heart.
And behold, it came
aer so long
with no imaginary joys
or excessive sorrow
the dream came
and it held only one purse:
my purse.
I had forgotten of it
I had looked for it
but without the sovereign
master of my present,
my panic,
yet with the serenity of a fairy tale.
I hadn’t paid any ticket
but the dream
graced me quite graciously
with a short voyage
in a liberated country.
Liberated from the forceful
oversights of reality.
After the War
The houses remained empty
windows firmly shut
always longing for a hand’s quiver
inside, a widow always lamented
her dead husband or
a mother for her son and
we made toys out of wire
left by the enemies
threads meant for ideal nooses
and we laughed
we always laughed like
the innocent evening breeze
that galloped over the shore
for our unknown future
lurking ahead that
with optimism we anticipated
a better world to mould
fear couldn’t enter our hearts
the fields remained not sown
the company that sold seed
underwrote the villagers’ lives
along with the quality of coffins
https://draft2digital.com/book/3746001#print
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763750
Manolis Aligizakis 