Carnation Cuttings
Joseph Salvatore Aversano
1.
color
grabs
hold
of
a
stem
&
soon
after
wilts
how
the
flower
is
not
what
dies
2.
a stem, leaf, bud osiris
re
membered
3.
dying back
4.
The embodiment of compassion plunged into the hell realms to save its countless beings. In this way, the embodiment of compassion never went to any hell.
my shadow when I block the light
5.
STEEP INCLINE
Come evenings in the world beyond
When we’re let out from the factory,
Should the road that takes us home
Not go up this steeply,
Death won’t be too big a deal.
(Ankara, August 1937)
—Orhan Veli
6.
what we know of
the night from
things twilit
7.
and do stones have
a soul the cool
of a stone in
your palm
8.
the underworld by way of
lake bottom cave spring
root tunnel under
brushed foot
9.
subject to the
notion of permanence
the ship gone over the horizon is
as going out on
the widow’s walk
10.
I’ve joined a good number of funeral processions. As if more than one.
11.
No, you cannot bring your emotional-support kangaroo with you into heaven. Nor even onto a plane. Even if you have the right papers. Even if it wears a seatbelt for the full duration of the flight. The clouds move unconstrained….
12.
the paradise flycatcher
content with even
a paradise
fly
13.
One never dies completely
in myth. Where Icarus splashes down
and drowns puts the Ikarian Sea on the
map surface
deep
14.
in the cypresses
the village cemetery
a little darker
than day
15.
much
eaten
through
the
wind
in
the
leaf
shadow
too
Notes according to section number:
04. The bodhisattva Avolokitisvara (known also as Quanyin, Kannon, and Kanzeon).
05. Orhan Veli Kanık (1914 - 1950). The original Turkish version of the poem was first published in Varlık, 15 Sept., 1937. The translation is my own.
14. The poem beginning with “in the cypresses” was first published
in otata 45 (2o19) and is reprinted here with some modification.
Joseph Salvatore Aversano, a native New Yorker, resides in Ankara with his wife Asu. He is the founder of Half Day Moon Press and the editor of its journal. Some of his most recent poems are published in Contemporary Haibun Online, Heliosparrow, Indefinite Space and the anthology Haiku 21.2 (forthcoming). The Janet Lees directed film adaptation of his poem “The Gone Missing” has been screened at festivals worldwide. Joseph Salvatore Aversano is at ē·rā/tiō and is online at JosephSalvatoreAversano.com.