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