Light years
by Gloria Macher
Light years
Infinite darkness
obsesses my mind13
moving at unknown velocities
in this space bedecked in stars14
hidden in the interstices of the universe
where vast silences dwell
subversive15
fluctuating
lost in a half-remembered past
amid thousands of millions of light years16
obscuring truths
toying with the many secrets
between your half-open lips
crazy with sunlight17
within your bedazzled
spiral gaze
20 million kilometres
away
from all emotion
from all love
13 The poem’s first two lines launch this meditation on space travel into orbit, and the five stanzas that follow are clauses modifying and speculating on the initial thought.
14 Vestido de estrellas posed a challenge, which I momentarily solved with “star-spangled” but space is not an American property. ‘Dressed’ is too plain. To add romance I reached for a more traditional English lyric formula found in decking something out: a hall. Why not the sky for that matter?
15 Perturbation is a concept at home in both Spanish and English. But when a thing is perturbing and also changing, and when it’s hidden in the interstices of the universe, and also linked to erotic images of half-open lips and confused gazes, well, I call it subversive (in the best possible way).
16 My joy here, using executive authorial impulses, also known as hunches and instincts, was to hijack Gloria’s use of entre, meaning between things, which beautifully functions in her poem as anaphora, and play with the notion of ‘inbetweenicity;’ Between doesn’t always work where entre does. Sometimes you need within or amid. But sometimes you can couple lost with half-remembered for olvidados (forgotten) and arrive between.
17 De sol y locura: crazy with sunlight. Poetic license!
Años luces
La oscuridad infinita
obsede mis pensamientos
en velocidades inexploradas
en este espacio vestido de estrellas
escondidas entre las islas del universo
donde habitan los grandes silencios
perturbadores
cambiantes
entre millones de miles de años luces
olvidados en un pasado entreabierto
escondiendo verdades
jugando con los múltiples secretos
entre tus labios entreabiertos
de sol y locura
entre tu mirada confusa
de helio
a 20 millares de kilómetros
distantes
de toda emoción
de todo amor
Date
January 19, 2023