AN OPTIMISM
It is morning. Remember that.
It is morning and the house is quiet,
so quiet that I can, for the moment, set myself
to wandering. I can sit patient at the door.
I can beg and bang to be let in. I am
turning this way and that. I am circling
the hole in the world of my imagination.
Let me in. I am saying the words, predictable
as any key—when I was a child,
when my mother, when the swarm of bees,
when I spent my days in mud among
the worms, rushing down the hill, our flooding
yard, when Hannah’s brother, her mother,
when I was too unclean, too wild a thing,
when I was barred from, when I sat alone
in the snow behind her house, pristine,
when, briefly, J and I were, when we
flew darkly down the green suburban
street, when he loved me, or something
in me and I loved the wind between us,
our bloody knees, when I think back, I am
nearly always otherwise alone, though
I never was alone, child of the salamanders,
child of the morning snow, the shamefaced
leaves. All my life, certainly for as long
as I’ve known I had a life, I was
like the sparrow right now outside
my window, flying headfirst, incessantly,
into what must seem, to her, like sky.
All around me people moved and laughed
and seemed, from where I fell,
to understand some silent thing,
some secret word that made itself
no home in me. Aggrieved, the world
of other people. I let it go.
(Cameron Awkward-Rich)
Is it originally written in English by Cameron Awkward-Rich or was it written in another language by Cameron and translated by "Robin's substack" or written in another language and translated into English by Cameron? (Same for the poem "OBSERVANTE" by Rocío Cerón)
I went to the about page to double check because I'm subscribed to some translation a day/week etc substacks and I am not sure.
This is really beautiful. One of my favorite parts (though not the only ones) are where it alternates between "uncompleted fragments" and completed fragments or "when I was" making the uncompleted fragments echo with completion and putting the reader in the place of filling in that completion.
Also I have one question of clarity.
The poem is by Cameron Awkward-Rich.
Is it originally written in English by Cameron Awkward-Rich or was it written in another language by Cameron and translated by "Robin's substack" or written in another language and translated into English by Cameron? (Same for the poem "OBSERVANTE" by Rocío Cerón)
I went to the about page to double check because I'm subscribed to some translation a day/week etc substacks and I am not sure.
This is really beautiful. One of my favorite parts (though not the only ones) are where it alternates between "uncompleted fragments" and completed fragments or "when I was" making the uncompleted fragments echo with completion and putting the reader in the place of filling in that completion.