Selected Poems | 
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#QuotsyJun21 Day 29: #Crunch
From a biographical note by Akhmatova, included in the tagged book:
‘I have never stopped writing poems. For me they are my connection with time, with the new life of my people. In writing them I was living in the rhythms which were to be heard in the heroic history of my country. I am happy that I have lived in these times and seen events, the like of which have never been.‘
#poetrymatters @TheSpineView
#Swan #poetrymatters @TheSpineView #Akhmatova
The swans are carried on the wind,
the blue sky is bloodied.
The anniversary of the first days
of your love approaches.
You destroyed my powers,
the years flowed like water.
Why haven‘t you grown old,
but remain as you were then?
Your tender voice rings even clearer,
only your trouble-free brow
has been shadowed with snowy distinction
by the wing of time.
1922
pickAnna Akhmatova (1899-1966) first came into prominence as a Romantic poet, but it was her poetry about the horrors of the Russian Revolution that brought her fame. She endured decades of persecution. Her first husband, also a poet, was executed and her son imprisoned. She watched many of her artist friends die by suicide or execution. The poems talk of a history that I know very little. Serious, sad, intelligent and I want to know more.
Obverse
XVIII
“If an angel had stooped in its flight
Home to El Greco‘s heaven
To explain to me wordlessly
But with a summer smile
That more than all the seven
Deadly sins he was forbidden me.”
Painting- El Greco
#poemsbeforephones
Alexander at Thebes
“Put it all to the fire! There were wonders-gate
And tower and temples-everywhere the king searched,
But suddenly his face brightened with a thought:
‘Be sure that the house of the Poet is not touched‘.”
#poemsbeforephones
“Could Beatrice write with Dante‘s passion,
Or Laura have glorified love‘s pain?
Women poets- I set the fashion...
Lord, how to shut them up again!”
#poemsbeforephones
Painting of Anna Akhmatova by Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaysa
In Dreams
Black and enduring separation
I share equally with you.
Why weep? Give me your hand,
Promise me you will come again.
You and I are like high
Mountains and we can‘t move closer.
Just send me word
At midnight sometime through the stars.
#poemsbeforephones
Cleopatra
“Tomorrow, her children...Oh,what small things rest,
For her to do on earth-only to play
With this fool, and the black snake to her dark breast
Indifferently, like a parting kindness, lay.”
#poemsbeforephones
Muse
When at night I wait for her to come,
Life, it seems hangs by a single strand,
What are glory,youth,freedom in comparison
With the dear welcome guest,a flute in hand?
She enters now. Pushing her veil aside,
She stares through me with her attentiveness
I question her:‘And were you Dante‘s guide,
Dictating the Inferno?‘She answers ‘Yes‘.
#poemsbeforephones
Flight
“But the black sky grew lighter,
Someone called to us from a bridge.
With both hands I seized the chain
Of the cross on my breast.”
#poemsbeforephones
By The Seashore
“And often the woman
Of the new farm called to me
Distantly:‘Why don‘t you drop in?
Everybody says you bring good luck.‘
I shouted back:‘Only horseshoes
And a new moon bring good luck
-And only if the moon is to your right.‘
I didn‘t like entering rooms.”
#poemsbeforephones
One of my Valentine‘s Day gifts. And it‘s all because of Litsy! My first Folio! #blameitonlitsy
