LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 26, No. 4 - Winter 1980 Editor of this issue: Jonas Zdanys ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1980 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

POEMS BY

LIDIJA ŠlMKUTĖ POCIUS

Black Earth

I reach for the blue sky
Black earth is in my hands.

The blueness is blinding
When black earth is in my hands.

The sky is beyond my reach 
While black earth is in my hands.

Nonexistence

The wind has lost its way,
Forgotten its purpose and time, 
Hides unbreathing in the valley. 
The innocent green grass
      sucks its mother, earth. 
Someone's footsteps trample
      the grief that is.

Invitation

Come, rest a while
On the black coals
Of my bed,
Throw a drop of water on the fire
Still smouldering in the cinders,
But do not stay.
On reviving me, depart,
For my feelings are brittle,
My joy painful
And the bed of my life, rocky.

Keys in the Chests of Night

Walls, not doors
  bear secrets.
Irrevocable words
  have left permanent scars.
Witnesses of thoughts
  which our lips could never form.
These dark keys
  in the chests of night.

From "Moments"

In the melting afternoon sun, 
One can hear the whisper of the wind 
    when secrets of clouds unfold 
    between heaven and earth.

*

In the quietness of evening,
    the underground lament 
    seeps upwards.
The day crumbles,
    becomes fertile as the earth.

*

I stretch my hands to the distance 
But in the hazy light of day 
I fail to reach a vision
    or a sadness. 
Only the rain caresses
    my lips.

Wreath

From restless words
I have bound a wreath.
Past joys I entwined with memories,
Future joys with future hopes.
I have tied your name with a knot of longing
At the beginning and the end.