Aristi Trendel: Epitaph (in memory of Makis Apostolatos)

Epitaph

in memory of Makis Apostolatos

The swans were still awake
as she walked past the river bank
dazzling white
in the autumn dusk

white as in ghost
gone
some poems
in store

even poets die
hoping thinly to revive
in our great corporate times
no dice

“we’ll remember him”
slim message of grief
from fellow poets
and others would-be

he had banked on
the futile art
of crafting life
forehead in the stars

long necks reeling
in the autumn dusk
like floating candles
in the oncoming dark

comrade-in-arms
flaring pride in
desires ungratified
from one life to the next

cite other poems
for his own
in dense undergrowth
lost in translation, adrift

from Wikipedia
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notable deaths
in October 2010

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scatter his verses
in Nea Smyrni’s winds

he had retraced his steps
and had run after her
when he remembered
at long last “Eluard!”

adieu tristessse
down-to-earth time
squeezes feeble minds
along foreign banks

Greece is a pauper
rich in poets
unsold, left off
communications scores

“we’ll remember him”
for his faith
in the small business
of poetry

Aristi Trendel