Saturday, December 10, 2011

Diana Der Hovanessian: Tell the Armenian story

Tell the Armenian story in

 black and white please. 
We've had enough shades 
of blood and red 
and purple prose. 
We've had enough amber 
sunsets, hennaed tufa, 
enough golden wheat. 
Let's have some rest. 
Tell the Armenian story 
but not the gory past. 
Let it remain buried 
with the roots of poppies 
on our plains. Let the blue 
light of morning and the bright 
greens of Karabagh remain 
our secret. Keep the orange 
flame of Dzidzanapert 
and the yellow city sunsets 
ours alone. Show the pink 
and beige monasteries
and the citrus-shaded birds
all in shades of gray.
Don't show the violet mist
and blue snow of Ararat
nor the aquamarine Sevan
being gilt at sunrise.
Don't tint the apricot trees
with pink evening inks.
No gold or bottled green
in the valleys just silver
cold and bright. We do not
want the heart to break.
We want only light.

This poem has appeared in To Stanley Kunitz, with love from poet friends, for his 96th birthday.
Publisher: Riverdale-on-Hudson, N.Y. : Sheep Meadow Press ; [Hanover, NH] : Distributed by the University Press of New England, ©2002

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