Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Rob Schackne #187 - On Borges's Book Of Sand

On Borges's Book Of Sand


In Jorge Luis Borges
we hear the falling cadence
of an obstinate man, largely blind
with maybe only 10 years to live,
fluent enough to remember horrors
and how well the will preserves
pale images of all that, and Love–

whereas we the patient learners
turn over his old stories like a field
sharp into our own stubbornness
till we too are reading by candlelight
the parables of not life, but death
and one last cruel pitiful lesson
about uncountable gruesome worlds
with as many varieties as grains of sand,
for which we thank you, muy estimado.


6 comments:

  1. N.B. I refer the reader to Clive James's book "Cultural Amnesia" for his piece on Borges, if you would like some background on this little poem.

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  2. I like it, Rob - a lot. Maybe Cultural Amnesia isn't needed, but I'll try to look it up. Muchas gracias, mi amigo poetico

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  3. Posted something but disappeared, alas. Will try again. Love the poem, so maybe the James isn't necessary, though you've spurred my interest. Muchas gracias, mi amigo poetico.

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    1. Thank you, Dorothy. Probably right about the James being unnecessary. I suppose that all interested readers are aware of JLB's silence on the atrocities that were taking place in both his own Argentina and in neighboring Chile.

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