The ax the way to hold a broken glass The negation of a false note eyeshadow nails Common sense seaweed ravines all-or-nothing praise Astral decay and the reflection of its delirium The dew moon and many rowdy animals In this city of comrades this vanished city The vagabond storm its bursting eyes its potential fire The mixing of seeds sprouts and ashes Corner of Acacias masked with fragrance the sable pouts. Moon leaf flower breast and heavy eyelids Long kisses from the scarred fair-haired woman Who is always with me who is never alone Whose flow of no’s opposes me when yeses do not rain Her involuntary weakness Unceasing moans of love The elusive sip of whitewater The deceptive sip of fresh water She takes her first and last smokes. Lightweight furs dead from heat The blood of murder dismantling the negative statues She is wounded and pale and taciturn She is of a great artificial simplicity Unfathomable velvet dazzled shop-window Impalpable powder at the threshold of morning’s breeze Every dark image Lost in the expanse of her diurnal hair.
Paul Éluard (1895-1952), an integral member of the French Surrealist movement, published over 30 poetry collections, often in collaboration with other poets or artists. During WWI he dug graves and wrote letters to families of soldiers killed in action. A French Communist Party member, in WWII he worked for the Resistance. After the war, he embraced the cause of peace.
Ross Belot's latest poetry collection, Moving to Climate Change Hours, was published in 2020. The recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, he's been both long and short listed for the CBC Poetry Prize, and his poems appear in numerous journals. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Sara Burant is the grateful recipient of a 2023 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship. Her poems and reviews appear both online and in print. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with an attentive red heeler named Penn.
