Month: May 2026

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Praise

Photo by Kent Pilcher

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PRAISE

I find my peace descending through the notebook
towards a blank page

besieged by noise and by emptiness, my words
hold themselves in reserve for You, for the radiance of morning,
for the voice that leads me along the tortuous thread
of time

in my fingers I feel the rigor of water, the labor
of soap, Your joy

like grasses greening in the earth, the words flow:
I know men will come with their many blades,
they will come with the fire of their loveless hearts
and that small infinite light may not endure
beyond half a season

but it does not matter.
there was in my wrists the tremor, the miracle
repeated from the days of the beginning
and I know that every poem is born for You, all the green
of humble, useless things
and I know that I am fortunate, because You taught me so

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Poem by João Ricardo Lopes | Translated by Marcus Margrave (2026)

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Posted on

My Father

Photo by Florin Dumitru

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MY FATHER

my father sets stakes in the backyard.
at his age he still lifts the tangled rows of peas,
the strawberries, and the white blossoms of the plum tree,
and later the beautiful, heavy bodies of its fruit.
he crouches, in silence, mending wire threads,
braiding and unbraiding the pumpkin ropes.
sometimes, toward nightfall, he keeps tying
and untying knots,
always crouched, always with his back turned.
if we offer him a word, water, a handful of walnuts,
he raises a hand in quiet protest.
why does my father work so much.
to whom does he wish to pass, with such pain,
his stakes lifted to the sky.
what does his weary tongue say, full of hints,
already hungry – I want to believe – for eternity

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Poem by João Ricardo Lopes | Translated by Marcus Margrave (2026)

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