Clay: 28

Yannis Ritsos

Poetry — he said —
mute confessional
penitent sincerity.
No — said the other —
unexpected insignificant
nipped on one corner
by a nail clipper.
Poetry is, as a result,
not a perfect square.

Athens—January 19, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 92]

Clay: 27

Yannis Ritsos

Empty rooms
naked beds
the broom in the corner
the vacant cage
and this mirror
dark, gluttonous
still insisting
you look into it.

Athens—January 18, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 91]

Clay: 26

Yannis Ritsos

Pieces of cotton
not for the wound—
as evening falls
resplendent—
for the mouth
for the ears
for the eyes.

Athens—January 18, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 91]

Clay: 25

Yannis Ritsos

The marble
that forms the statue
and that which is
not the statue
and that which remains
hidden in the deep mountains
I was advised not to
reveal. Only
they didn't tell me how.

Athens—January 18, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 90-91]

Clay: 24

Yannis Ritsos

He took a chair
out to the garden
watched the shadow
kicked a stone.
Most of all
of late
the words hate me.

Athens—January 18, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 90]

Clay: 23

Yannis Ritsos

Once again
naked, extreme.
And his hands—
no longer covered—
simply mock
his wristwatch.

Athens—January 18, 1978

from Clay (1980) [Collected Poems: IDelta ---pg 90]

100th Anniversary of the birth of Yannis Ritsos

A double smile had come to seal this story; I don't know if the story will be continued, but I do know that life itself will continue its stories; and maybe some day, Ariostos the Observant will be able to cross the borders of each and every country, by showing a rose for his passport picked from his own humble garden or from the rose-garden of Lidice: the Rose Garden of Worldwide Friendship. And maybe some day, through myriads of struggles and vigils and excavations inside as well as outside us, inside history and inside the future, we will arrive at the Land of Smiles, out there beyond race and religion and tradition and language, where Man will recognize Man as his brother, from the same smile full of self-knowledge, and all men will exchange gazes and feelings of a universally human creative offering of thanks.

---Yannis Ritsos


from Sealed with a Smile; Book Seven of Ritsos' great nine-part pseudo-autobiography Iconostasis of Anonymous Saints (Translated by Amy Mims and published by Kedros in three volumes)

note: Amy Mims deserves a place among the Anonymous Saints for her work. It's well worth anyone's effort to order these books from Greece, but it would be even better if they were distributed in the United States, or published here as well---perhaps someday. S.K.