Millennium Meeting beyond Time (Songs before the Gaze) by Vladimir Suchan

 

Venerable Stupas of the East

 

All the stupas scattered across mountains

and along far-flung paths are formed into bells

Heaven would have dropped in front of us

if it could—to round and harmonize

man’s heart with empyreal sound.

 

A drop of Heaven, gliding down

or waiting, suspended, until

the one intended comes at last

to be gathered in compassion

where an eye meets a divine eye.

 

And so the question always remains,

the question every stupa asks:

by what steps does Heaven

let us enter such a spirit’s heart?

 

 

Tiresias to Odysseus in Hades: “Your Death Will Come from the Sea"

 

In those revenant reveries

and so defying the lethargy of endings,

many come and enter—

though only briefly,

dipping no more than lightly

into those coral eyes,

they would suddenly turn

into drifting sailors

 

launched on the boundlessness

of everlasting seas

where all are bound to sink--

 

so much more potent is

that pristine light

than a touch of Styx.

Sometimes at Noon City Persephones Too Go out for Lunch In Backyard Cafés

 

A petite fountain

Is gurgling up

Its nether stream

Through a silver film

 

In quiet parallel

To our cinemas,

their caves

and darkened screens.

 

And those little

garden leaves

quiver side by side,

 

in unison even

with her knees—

all become one lover’s fan.