Poetry: Alisa Velaj

​ABCs
OF ICE, OF FIRE
PSYCHE

by Alisa Velaj

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ABCs
We can't  be clearer than this snowy sky,  my dear.
​It has the guts to see everything stark naked,
unabashedly so, down to the bone of nakedness--
similarly to Eden in its genesis days... 

You and I vest one armor piece upon another,
lusty with bonfires stacked up deep inside us,
while they never satiated us enough,
nor ever burnt
or cremated us to ashes...

We are heroes of glorious sunny days--
our clarity held hostage by a long winter night,
ever since you swore on rock and wood
to flee four seasons away from snows,
there, where the sun would shine your eyes... 

And here we are now—in season five,
wordless and eyes downcast, under the same sky,
which we shall never be able to outspace,
​unless we first master the spectrum of light! 

Translated from Albanian by Arben P. Latifi
​

​OF ICE, OF FIRE
No civilization ever more temporary than yours, Thales*.
The planet's waters froze once again,
same as it occurred prior to genesis
and keeps recurring to this day.

Ice is now the form of the single substance you honor.
All we are confronted by is a virgin empire of snow.
No surprise; no curiosity, either.
We've already grown accustomed to this season,
as patiently as the tree trunks did.

The footprints of your civilization, Thales,
are the only ones bereft of memory.
​Nomads arrive from glacial civilizations,
unexpectedly leaving their traces on whiteness,
and then, yet all of a sudden,
everything disappears as if it never were!

The trees keep on shedding their leaves,
while their trunks preserve a saddening greenishness.
They covertly oppose the empire.
Rumors claim Heraclitus blows warm winds their way...
(Let's leave fir trees aside for a moment;
perennially clad in uniform like Spartan soldiers,
they have publicly deserted you, my friend.)

Our words will soon be mere stalactites,
our bodies will naturally yield to fir trees,
for we are temporary akin to civilizations,
hence, our careless drift from one empire to another.

We consist of matter like water and fire.
We can't forever swim in the same river.
We can't forever be only snowmen.
We can't endure seasons of fire only...
​
We are the most elusive disciples in  cosmos,
oracles of our own beliefs and heavens...
 
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* Thales (of Miletus) and Heraclitus (of Ephesus) were pre-Socratic Greek                                              philosophers. Thales held water to be the primal substance of the world, while                                      Heraclitus believed fire was the basic element of the universe.
 
Translated from Albanian by Arben P. Latifi
 
 
PSYCHE*    
 
That these oak trees possess a soul like mine
(even though temporary),
this is a more-than-obvious empirical statement.
​The snow sods besieging them like army legions,
the light that dusks down yet without dawning up,
Thor's onslaughts raging in frosty storms,
not only won't subdue them in any way,
but they will invincibly stand up by the roadside,
like light-reveling cherubs
​to the aggrieved passerby!
 
________
* According to Aristotle, oak trees and ostriches possess a psyche or soul.  
 
Translated from Albanian by Arben P. Latifi
 

​Bio:
Alisa Velaj was shortlisted for the annual international Erbacce-Press Poetry Award in UK in June 2014. Her works have appeared in more than 100 print and online international magazines in Europe, UK, USA, Australia and India. Recent publications include Stockholm Literally Review, Lethe Literary and Art Journal, The Ofi Press Magazine, A New Ulster, Poetry Space, Haaretz, The Linnet’s Wings, Stag Hill Literary Journal, Orbis Magazine, The Quarterly Review etc etc. Her poetry collection, With No Sweat At All, will be published by Cervana Barva Press in 2020.

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