A Remedy for Insomnia
Not sheep coming down the hills,
not cracks on the ceiling---
count the ones you loved,
the former tenants of dreams
who would keep you awake,
once meant the world to you,
rocked you in their arms,
those who loved you . . .
You will fall asleep, by dawn, in tears.
-- Vera Pavlova
It's from this Vera's first book of poems in English. Here's another of her distillations for you (this one translated from the Russian by her husband, Steven Seymour):
Let us touch each other
while we still have hands,
palms, forearms, elbows . . .
Let us love each other for misery,
torture each other, torment,
disfigure, maim,
to remember better,
to part with less pain.
And this is a shortie she features on her webpage:
I broke your heart.
Now barefoot I tread
on shards.
