July 2022
Bio Note: The language is haunting; in fact the entire book (Following Hope) reads like a haunted, lyrical, warm, violent, wounded love-poem in which togetherness and a chilly gulf of separation vie with each other, and hurt is inseparable from loving passion. This leads to a situation where warm intimacy and icy distance assess as they embrace. ... This book doesn't really get laid aside; it walks the streets of Dublin with me. —Brendan Kennelly
Eyes on Fire
Lily opens slowly in new light
Delicate praise for Jehovah
Ink is drying on heart
Your name
Cocooned in silence
Growing against
Windowpane ache
Recollection as unclear as vapour
Pressed against
This shock of overlooked
Ephemeral
You didn’t see
Until too late
Burning us both
In regret
I whisper
I forgive you
Lily detaches in storm
Drops like tears
Eyes on fire
Against cruel daybreak
Gunshot
Inked face of war
Paint fingerprints
The wound blooms: a blood lily
Opening
Life pooled on the floor
Like too much rain
Rage swallowed by its own
Vacuum
She says shhhhhh
The mood has turned
Her lip twisted up
Against time
There is no way back now
This will not be buried
Red regret
©2022 Sabne Raznik
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