THE POET’S TEARS

THE POET’S TEARS

One baroque poet said:
The words are
The eyes’ tongues

But what is a poem
If not
A telescope of desire
Focused by language?

The sinuous flight of the birds
The tall waves of the sea
The lull of the wind:
Everything
Everything fits into words
And the poet who sees
Weeps tears of ink

Ana Hatherly (May 8, 1929 – August 5, 2015), Portuguese academic, poet, visual artist, and writer, in O Pavão Negro. Translated by Ana Hudson. Hatherly was considered one of the pioneers of experimental poetry and literature movement in Portugal. She was born in Porto, Portugal, and held a degree in Germanic philology from the University of Lisbon and a doctorate in Hispanic studies from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as training in both film and music. Hatherly was a professor of human and social sciences at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she founded the university's Institute of Portuguese Studies.

Photo: THE POET’S TEARS, Timorese women from Same, Timor-Leste. (March, 2016)