Η Ποίηση του Κόσμου

 Carl Spitzweg: Ο κυνηγός πεταλούδων, 1840

 ************

Butterfly Catcher

by Tina Cane

In the Sixties
Nabokov switched

from ink to eraser-
topped pencil

on index cards  a box
of cards for Ada  a box

of cards for dreams
whose "curious features"

include "erotic tenderness
and heart-rending enchantment"

in one draft
he traded "stillness and heat"

for "silence, a burning"
                       so picture:

Vladimir seated
at the trunk of a tree

a spring day
at Wellesley  where

he marvels at his students
and their cable-knit socks

the way each elastic
grips without binding

just below
the knee      so exquisite

an application of pressure
that when said sock

is slowly
peeled off

the skin shows
no trace at all

 Πηγή: poets.org

Tina Cane

Tine Cane was born in New York City. She received a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA in French literature from Middlebury College. She is the author of Once More with Feeling (Veliz Books, 2017), as well as the chapbooks Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante (Skillman Avenue Press, 2016) and The Fifth Thought (Other Painters Press, 2008), a book-length poem. The recipient of a Fellowship Merit Award from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Cane is the founder and director of Writers-in-the-Schools, Rhode Island, for which she works as a visiting poet. She has taught French, English, and creative writing in public and private schools throughout New York City and Rhode Island. In 2016 she was selected to be the sixth poet laureate of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence. 

Read about Tine Cane’s 2020 Poets Laureate Fellowship project.