"The bard is one whose roots bind him to his own people, one who is utterly devoted to his land and region, one who is a minister plenipotentiary speaking for his country before the world. Poets are not migratory birds." --Rasul Gamzatov, intro to Selected Poems (tr P Tempest, 1974)


"Fate has been kind: I'm neither blind
Nor mad...yet still desire
To see the world's bread lower priced
And human life priced higher."

--Gamzatov


my eyes aren't so good anymore
my stomach's worse
if you can't see my mirror
i can't see you
pejorative sunbeam, clyte

more sudden than even
the street preacher's threat
took my Chevy to the levee
but the levee was down
pejorative sunbeam, move


The Magic Daughter.

"...there is an old hostility
between life and the great work."

--Rilke