The Tenants Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
Throw into the little box A stone You’ll take out a bird Throw in your shadow You’ll take out the shirt of happiness Throw in your father’s root You’ll take out the axle of the universe The little box works for you Throw into the little box A mouse You’ll take out a quaking hill […]
The Judges Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
to Karl Max Ostojic Why do you stare at the little box That in her emptiness Holds the whole world If the little box holds The world in her emptiness Then the antiworld Holds the little box in its antihand Who’ll bite off the antiworld’s antihand And on that hand Five hundred antifingers Do you […]
The Admirers Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
Sing little box Don’t let sleep overtake you The world’s awake within you In your four-sided emptiness We turn distance into nearness Forgetfulness into memory Don’t let your nails come loose For the very first time We watch sights beyond this world Through your keyhole Turn your key in our mouths Swallow words and numbers […]
Far Within Us #6 by Vasko Popa
From the wrinkle between my brows You watch till day breaks On my face The waxen night Is beginning to singe The fingers of dawn Black bricks Have already tiled The whole dome of the sky ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry […]
Give Me Back My Rags #4 by Vasko Popa
Get out of my walled infinity Of the star circle round my heart Of my mouthful of sun Get out of the comic sea of my blood Of my flow of my ebb Get out of my stranded silence Get out I said get out Get out of my living abyss Of the bare father-tree […]
Far Within Us #7 by Vasko Popa
Toothed eyes fly Over still waters Around us purple lips Flutter from branches Screams hit the blue And fall onto pillows Our homes hide Behind narrow backs Hands clutch at Flimsy clouds Our veins roll turbid Bed and tables Of shattered bones Noon has fallen into our hands And turned all gloomy An open grave […]
Far Within Us #3 by Vasko Popa
Unquiet you walk Along the rims of my eyes On the invisible grating Before your lips My naked words shiver We steal moments From the unheeding iron saws Your hands sadly Flow into mine The air is impassable ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and […]
Far Within Us #2 by Vasko Popa
Look here’s that uninvited Alien presence look it’s here A shudder on the ocean of tea in the cup Rust taking hold On the edges of our laughter A snake coiled in the depths of the mirror Will I be able to hide you From your face in mine Look it’s the third shadow On […]
Give Me Back My Rags #1 by Vasko Popa
Give me back my rags My rags of pure dreaming Of silk smiling of striped foreboding Of my cloth of lace My rags of spotted hope Of burnished desire of chequered glances Of skin from my face Give me back my rags Give me when I ask you nicely ————— The End And that’s the […]
Between Games by Vasko Popa
Nobody rests This one constantly shifts his eyes Hangs them on his head And whether he wants it or not starts walking backwards He puts them on the soles of his feet And whether he wants it or not returns walking on his head This one turns into an ear He hears all that won’t […]
Anne Pennington by Vasko Popa
Until her last breath she enlarges Her Oxford house Built in Slavonic Vowels and consonants She polishes the corner-stones Until their Anglo-Saxon shine Begins to sing Her death is like a short breath-stop Under the distant limetrees of her friends ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by […]
Give Me Back My Rags #11 by Vasko Popa
I’ve wiped your face off my face Ripped your shadow off my shadow Leveled the hills in you Turned your plains into hills Set your seasons quarreling Turned all the ends of the world from you Wrapped the path of my life around you My impenetrable my impossible path Just try to meet me now […]
Give Me Back My Rags #12 by Vasko Popa
Enough chattering violets enough sweet trash I won’t hear anything know anything Enough enough of all I’ll say the last enough Fill my mouth with earth Grit my teeth To break off you skull guzzler To break off once for all I’ll just be what I am Without root without branch without crown I’ll lean […]
The Craftsmen Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
Don’t open the little box Heaven’s hat will fall out of her Don’t close her for any reason She’ll bite the trouser-leg of eternity Don’t drop her on the earth The sun’s eggs will break inside her Don’t throw her in the air Earth’s bones will break inside her Don’t hold her in your hands […]
Before The Game by Vasko Popa
Shut one eye then the other Peek into every corner of yourself See that there are no nails no thieves See that there are no cuckoo’s eggs Shut then the other eye Squat and jump Jump high high high On top of yourself Fall then with all your weight Fall for days on end deep […]
The Benefactors Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
We’ll return the little box Into the arms Of her inconspicuously honest properties We won’t do anything Against her will We’ll simply take her apart We’ll crucify her On her own cross Piece her bloated emptiness And let ooze All the blue cosmic blood she gathered We’ll sweet her clean of stars And anti-stars And […]
The Enemies Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
Don’t box down to the little box Which supposedly contains everything Your star and all other stars Empty yourself In her emptiness Take two nails out of her And give them to the owners To eat Make a hold in her middle And stick on your clapper Fill her with blueprints And the skin of […]
Hide-And-Seek by Vasko Popa
Someone hides from someone else Hides under his tongue The other looks for him under the earth He hides on his forehead The other looks for him in the sky He hides inside his forgetfulness The other looks for him in the grass Looks for him looks There’s no place he doesn’t look And looking […]
The Owners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
Line the inside of the little box With your precious skin And make yourself cozy Just as you would in your own home Make space voyages inside her Gather stars make time squirt its milk And sleep in the clouds Just don’t go around pretending You’re more important than her length And wiser than her […]
The Little Box by Vasko Popa
The little box gets her first teeth And her little length Little width little emptiness And all the rest she has The little box continues growing The cupboard that she was inside Is now inside her And she grows bigger bigger bigger Now the room is inside her And the house and the city and […]
Race by Vasko Popa
Some bite from the others A leg an arm or whatever Take it between their teeth Run out as fast as they can Cover it up with earth The others scatter everywhere Sniff look sniff look Dig up the whole earth If they are lucky and find an arm Or leg or whatever It’s their […]
In The Village Of My Ancestors by Vasko Popa
Someone embraces me Someone looks at me with the eyes of a wolf Someone takes off his hat So I can see him better Everyone asks me Do you know how I’m related to you Unknown old men and women Appropriate the names Of young men and women from my memory I ask one of […]
Give Me Back My Rags by Vasko Popa
Just come to my mind My thoughts will scratch out your face Just come into my sight My eyes will start snarling at you Just open your mouth My silence will smash your jaws Just remind me of you My remembering will paw up the ground under your feet That’s what it’s come to between […]
Far Within Us #5 by Vasko Popa
The nights are running out of darkness Steel branches grasp The arms of passers-by Only anonymour chimneys Are free to walk the streets Which slice across our sleeplessness In the gutters our stars decay ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — […]
A Forgetful Number by Vasko Popa
Once upon a time there was a number Pure and round like the sun But alone very much alone It began to reckon with itself It divided multiplied itself It subtracted added itself And remained always alone It stopped reckoning with itself And shut itself up in its round And sunny purity Outside were left […]
A Conceited Mistake by Vasko Popa
Once upon a time there was a mistake So silly so small That no one would even have noticed it It couldn’t bear To see itself to hear of itself It invented all manner of things Just to prove that it didn’t really exist It invented space To put its proofs in And time to […]