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Poetry

Bare Nothing

By Gabriel Magaña Merlo
Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine

I

 

II

 

III

 

gush of penumbra
anchored in the calm
 
untouched beyond.
soon to unearth
—poem written on the page—
the graveyard of words
past the other side of spring
bursts the penumbra that names
stripping bare the sea sky jungle
the bark of the landscape
vanishes
things recover
the skeleton of their name
born
from the ground heart
the word
tireless
toward the ground dancing
points

IV

ambiguity
like ice like breeze
like dune
sedentary

V

asleep in the chasm of the future
lies the lone stone that can strike transcendent

VI

naked
the game
night plays
sentenced by thought
—the more nocturnal
the more luminous

English

I

 

II

 

III

 

gush of penumbra
anchored in the calm
 
untouched beyond.
soon to unearth
—poem written on the page—
the graveyard of words
past the other side of spring
bursts the penumbra that names
stripping bare the sea sky jungle
the bark of the landscape
vanishes
things recover
the skeleton of their name
born
from the ground heart
the word
tireless
toward the ground dancing
points

IV

ambiguity
like ice like breeze
like dune
sedentary

V

asleep in the chasm of the future
lies the lone stone that can strike transcendent

VI

naked
the game
night plays
sentenced by thought
—the more nocturnal
the more luminous

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