everywhere there was darkness
high above it was dark
                    always it was dark
a syrupy darkness
       seeped into your mouth / stuffed your ears
slapped you across your eyes
you couldn't tell what direction
                 you might move in
a darkness of iron
     over hearts and minds
sometimes we chance upon each other / we shake hands
      with somebody / then somebody else
but the guillotine of cold
   abruptly cuts short
this beginning
the dark / always the dark
                       forever darker
over all things
in the soul / in the mind
on the earth
(the  darkness above darkness)

Cassian Maria Spiridon from City of Dreams and Whispers
translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Mihai Ursachi

time walks.
giant steps
carving
an absence,
a heart shaped
niche.

time walks.
rosary stones
ground
into nothing.
not an echo
nor a breeze.

i would cry out, give voice my wild rage
if that would loose the bonds, arrest her plight
but cowardice sustains a safer silence
long imbued complacency of guilt
--ensconced escapist narthex ease and shade--
i do not speak the secret all avoid
when speaking it condemns me to a pretense
loathe of self the ears that hear and do not hear
deep cloister  of a falsely sacred quest
to give into the hands encompassing us all
which hand it down again, below a conscience
as above removed, vacant as her eyes

Sunrise
6 am
we are on holiday
his hands steadily tease
my body awake

he knows it’s not always easy
to make love to me
before coffee

he must be masterful
a sun god blazing
creating heat

by the time he enters me
the room is melting
and i am as wet
as the monterey sea
that slaps rhythmically
outside the open window pane

each ****** will change me
as the crashing wave
does the beach

i need some ground
in this abyss
so I'm holding on
my fingers
clutching his rib cage
the nape of his neck

finally i surrender  
let go and moan
and moan
like the oceans soft hum.

we meet at the horizon
at the edge of pleasure
and ***.

our bodies fall soft
our breath jagged

i couldn't possibly know then
that we were only days away

from never making love again.

she speaks of hills
from times passed behind

of cloud capped tops
and snow capped peaks

can't we go back once
where wind stole my stole
and you chased down the wind

clouds dipped to see me blush
as you wrapped my heart warm

can we go back once

the yaks may still be grazing
time may still be standing

by chance.

happiness arrives in a moment
and departs without a whisper
fleeting is constantly cyclic

blue sky hovers over teal sea
gold moonlight bathes pebbled shore
tide silently ebbs away froth

still i look to find a reason
for the disintegration of persistence
and the integral content of content