Crow Feather on My Path

Pain defines itself

Like a crow that drops a feather

And never looks back

Pain defines itself

Without excuse, without regret

A tender whisper

At sunrise

Defines itself on your pillow

As part of you

For you

Yet a whisper in never loud

Even when allowed

There is little joy

When you find the black feather

Upon your path

At sunset or at high noon

And put it in your bag

In fear that it can fly

By itself

A name you still remember

Defines itself

As that part of you

You lost, near a vast sea

Or to forget pain

... And you want to remember

But you now have that black feather

A crow dropped upon your path

So you sharpen its tip

And you dip that feather

Into the night-dark ink

Of your memories

And give the name you once forgot

A new name

To define itself

June 28, 2017

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2017

The Danube Just Flowed On (József Attila)

Half a face

Yet two eyes

To see what others will wonder

As if new

A heart where no secrets

Talk to each other

And on August nights

Float as Jasmine blossom in a clay pot

Hands aging and slow

Yet they have left no scars

For what they touched was touched before

And what they held was already gone

The rivers have passed

And their waters have kept

Little

June 17, 2017

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2017

I was reading poems by József Attila translated from Hungarian. The mood in many of his lines reminded me of a photo I took from the castle of Buda. It was a foggy and cold day, the historic palace of Pest was in a dream, and the Danube “just flowed on.”

While I Was Not Looking

It was discomfort

As beauty found my word

And forgot to end it

With a point

Instead

A life was made of it

That word

That name

As if a holiday gift

Left wrapped in its own ribbon

It was discomfort then

But now

As days get numbered

Like the gallop

Of an aging race horse

My word writes itself

At the start of every

Ending point

… The passage of beauty

And the shadow it left behind

Remain my cherished gifts

Even if

I have never untied

The yellow ribbon

June 10, 2017

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2017