Doris Kareva Poems

For all
who have gone astray at sea,
for all
who have spilled the day,
...

When I write
I shepherd unheeding words
on the nigh impossible slope
of the pass of silence.
...

Bitter and scarce is the northern light.
The sledge here is drawn by heavy shadows,
the owls and wolves keep watch.
A word crunches between the teeth.
...

And I love you because
I love you.

Why meet —
you are but air for me.
...

That which is can be expressed
in another language,
that we forget at birth.
...

Blazing, unmoving sun
over the isle of death,
the white stone house of Time.
...

The scalpel and the metronome
on my father's piano
kept a silence between them,
when I was a child.
...

A seaside house
always feels like it is a ship,
just landed.
...

I sing in praise of the loser
for the winner is well lauded,
I kneel before the forlorn
I bow before the beaten.
...

Chant the mantra, mandragora,
mandragora, deathly deep sleep-weed:
it all keeps turning, keeps churning,
keeps occurring.
...