Mirage, John Lyons (70 x 50 cm, oil on canvas)
How to reconcile
the syllables of silence
with empty vessels
In my mind
I crossed a Sahara
endless dunes
endless silence
I a passenger
in the wilderness
parched by day
by night shivering
under the stars
love the oasis
of milk and honey
on the eager tongue
at daybreak
the heart calculates
the distance
the horizon
the never-ending
thread
John Lyons
Revised
More sky than sea
more soil than land
the inventions of history
cannot contain you
When the oil is spent
the light goes out
the wick is thrown away
Your spirit transcends
these times
this place
your love knows
no boundaries
John Lyons
I knew: the world was hiding from me,
behind all things another thing hides
and snaps at my heels. All the while
it refuses to show me its true face,
because the trust and friendship between
man and the world have now been lost.
Not for no reason do the smallest birds
recoil from me, or fish scatter
the moment they recognise a human shape,
or with their fragile beauty do flowers wish
to save themselves from me (the final
shred of hope that human beings
are not entirely beyond redemption). After all,
I thought, the harmony of worlds
has not bypassed humanity, instead
a certain distance has been established:
you belong to the world only thus far.
Vasyl Stus
Version by John Lyons
Vasyl Stus (1938-1985), was a Ukrainian poet, translator, literary critic, journalist, and an active member of the Ukrainian dissident movement. For his political convictions, his works were banned by the Soviet regime and he spent 13 years in detention, until his death in a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners.
AROUND THE WORLD, EVERY CULTURAL VENUE AND SPACE CLOSING IT DOORS TO RUSSIAN PERFORMANCES SHOULD OFFER THEM TO UKRAINIAN CULTURE
The sea sorts shells
on the seashore
while white plumes
form in the foam
and tonight
a scattering of stars
will shine down on us
and we will continue
on the tick tock of our sad
misadventures
Nobody knows
where the words
are heading
but in these times
of war our hearts
beat for peace
for human nature
to regain
the upper hand
for love to rule
in the house
of verbs
John Lyons
johnjosephlyons 