Postcard to I. Kaminsky from a Dream at the Edge of the Sea
by Cecilia Woloch
I was leaving a country of rain for a country of apples. I hadn't much time. I told my beloved to wear his bathrobe, his cowboy boots, a black patch like a pirate might wear over his sharpest eye. My own bags were full of salt, which made them shifty, hard to lift. Houses had fallen, face first, into the mud at the edge of the sea. Hurry, I thought, and my hands were like birds. They could hold nothing. A feathery breeze. Then a white tree blossomed over the bed, all white blossoms, a painted tree. "Oh," I said, or my love said to me. We want to be human, always, again, so we knelt like children at prayer while our lost mothers hushed us. A halo of bees. I was dreaming as hard as I could dream. It was fast—how the apples fattened and fell. The country that rose up to meet me was steep as a mirror; the gold hook
from "poem a day".I often think if I had to leave quickly,run for my life, where, how ,with what,with who shall I run...
the poet easily brings me back to these thoughts,do you ever have such thoughts as well?
Do you know who/if the I. Kaminsky is or was? This poem touched me similar to your sense of running for your life, or looking back as a refugee, and trying to explain this to someone who doesn't like it, thinks it has no meaning. Hoping some historical background, if it exists, might give them a perspective to seeing it.
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mjs149@google.com
ilya kamisky is a young russian poet from odessa whose family was granted asylum from the USSR. He is one of the founders of Poets for Peace. Ms. Woloch was born in Kentucky to Polish immigrants. You can find ilya at www.ilyakaminsky.com. Both poets share a nostalgia for their country of birth and extreme dedication to humanitarian causes. It is painful to leave one's country,but a life without freedom of expression a far greater pain.The words like or dislike are meaningless in poetry. It is akin to saying, I do not like a feeling, a sunset,the subtleties of light.It is difficult to explain that which is understood by one's heart. Thank you for your comments.
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