Michael E. Stone: A Valley Near Sevan
Հայ Բանաստեղծութեան Համացանցը։ Projet de Poésie Arménienne
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 9/05/2012 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 7/07/2012 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
A child’s propellor
spins,
yellow-blue blur,
whirling rosette,
symbol of eternity.
The whirl's heart
looks dark and stable,
center holding,
edge fixed firm.
The world turns
no beginning
no ending
just whirling
till the parts fuse.
Eternity’s symbol.
Eghegis, Armenia
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 3/29/2012 06:48:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
I went to Geghard yesterday.
By the way you can see
fruit trees and villages and stalls selling jam
and coloured necklaces of walnuts and apricots.
Snow and stone roaring down
washed out the road in places.
Volcanic rock and tufa gravel shining with black obsidian flakes
witnessed the volcano’s creation, the lava’s upward push.
Its power.
I was in Geghard yesterday.
It is as beautiful as ever,
and the frothing, foaming stream swollen with snow melt
carolled its spring song sprinting down from the peaks.
Over the lace stone doorway,
two bulls rearing up
and two birds en face in the spandrels,
coat-of-arms of dead princes evoke
another, former time
when the caves resounded
with chanting and incense.
Bishops and barons,
Smbat and Burtel,
they reached even here,
bulls and eagles, pomp and ceremony,
and cells dot the hills.
Peaks, some snow and the river’s cascade
at the foot of the church’s hill.
Polychrome fruit lavash, and
round pilgrims’ bread hawked.
Stone crosses in the rock above,
strive to vanquish the rocky cliffs,
bring them under faith’s yoke,
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 6/14/2011 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 1/10/2011 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 11/01/2010 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 6/20/2010 10:19:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 4/30/2010 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone, Quotes
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 4/09/2010 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
A little park off the Prospekt,
half of it is a cafe now
-- not unpleasant --
and the rest, abandoned.
Mexican yuccas in tubs and
cane garden furniture
bound together with raffia,
with round glass-topped tables,
striving for a patio feeling,
But unfinished.
We sit there dining on
the toughest guinea fowl ever hatched
and a cool wind blows through,
from one end to the other,
mixing the aroma
of traffic on the Prospekt
and of gas pumps at the back.
May 2009
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/18/2009 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
A stylized salt-cellar,
in brown ceramic
ovoid, a woman's face,
and a fringe of pottery hair on top
hands at its sides.
a marsupial Humpty-Dumpty
with a pouch full of salt
for flavour,
and a pottery spoon.
Copyright Michael E. Stone
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 10/01/2007 07:32:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Khor Virap on a hill's shoulder,
not even reaching up to
near-far Ararat's ankles.
Its wall and dome
etched out.
Square gravestones scattered
at its foot,
Like so many children's blocks,
A boy sells doves,
(turtle doves?).
We bought ice cream and Coca Cola
by Gregory's vault-covered pit,
its wall engrooved
by ages' reverent kiss.
Copyright Michael E. Stone
Michael E. Stone is Gail de Nur Professor of Comparative Religion and Professor of
Armenian Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The poem appears by kind permission of the author.
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/20/2007 01:31:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
Thick yellow paper, brown-flecked, thick,
Laid and polished by hand.
Small, blocky letters inscribed
by stylus in carbon ink.
A straightforward, modest book,
standing upright alongside
jewelled, gold-crusted treasures
made for bishops and kings.
Copied in a village church
by a priest, for the love of God;
bound with leather and twine,
over wooden boards, lovingly.
A note by a reader,
three centuries ago,
asks to remember his soul,
and that of his dead mother.
A later owner ransomed it,
he tells,
from the hands of "the others".
Cherished, it enfolds
the past and future hopes.
Copyright Michael E. Stone
Michael E. Stone is Gail de Nur Professor of Comparative Religion and Professor of Armenian Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This poem appears by his kind permission.
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/07/2007 01:28:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Israel, Michael E. Stone
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