Three Poems by Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

 

My Dark Angels 

 

Who are they?— 

these particles that fall away from me? 

The air is filled with angels   but I am filling up with dust– 

two thousand years of human suffering that clings 

and cannot be washed away by rain   or tears 

or the great storm that circles round my head 

 

How many broken shapes and shadows 

have passed through and crumbled in 

how many hearts and minds?  Still 

none may be felt more deeply   or singly 

than through the Eye of the Universe 

which breathes in Everything 

 

When I am troubled 

I pray for my dark angels– 

that I   too   will not be separated 

from all this falling away 

 

Then 

the constellations of loneliness 

that rise from the earth and despair in the soul 

are gathered up into the Miracle 

 

Then 

the One who holds up the Miracle 

begins to rise in me

 

Thou Art  

                                       

look for me not in words    

but in the silences in between 

the stillness as it settles     

the dust that is unseen 

 

melt not just the votive     

warm devotion’s altering art 

rise with the Invisible  

through the eyes of the heart 

 

speak not just the Name  

but sound its infinite vibration 

each time you exhale  

you are birthing all creation 

 

turn not to the heavens  

but to your universe within 

you, yourself, are a planet  

and like a top you spin 

 

in the ancient sacred cosmos     

the cathedrals of the night 

the whirling of the spheres    

the ragas of pure light 

 

an ecstasy of stars pours through  

your black holes of space 

spontaneous  holy combustion  

transforms with human grace  

 

the revolution of evolution--- 

there is no ending or beginning it 

your moment is here   is now                                                                                                          

and everything that’s in it 

 

Love is the constant flame    

Mother’s flow of energy 

i look for Her in All     

i look for you in me

 

 

Under the Corner of Your Pillow                         

 

When the world was young 

and the earth was like a song 

a zillion stars 

fell through the sky   like a gentle rain 

with blessings from the blue                                            

A zillion stars 

danced in their sacred  fires 

and spun their astral winds 

to guide your soul 

A zillion stars 

traveled the harmonies of space 

to reach your heart 

where they are humming now   like violins 

 

Stars 

fell through the sky  

and lit up your face with a smile 

reflecting forever their radiance 

in your eyes 

Fell through the sky 

and caught in your throat 

that you may remember their darkness and beauty 

on your lips     before you speak of silence 

 

When the world was bright 

and you were just a song 

the spirit of your light 

which has shone for eons of time 

which watches over you watching 

came to live inside you and me 

that we may heal ourselves-- 

each the other's miracle 

each a star to wish upon 

 

When you were young 

and life was just a star 

an angel rising from the ashes 

knelt beside you singing 

And   folding the last note of her song 

inside a piece of sky 

she placed it under the corner of your pillow 

where you may find it still when you are dreaming                                                                                                                  

                                     still when you are dreaming                                                                                         still when you are dreaming 

If in the light of darkness you should fade                                                                           

like some distant blue horizon 

too late for twilight      too early for dawn                             

listen to the sky within                                                                                                         

The universe out there   is here 

inside of you 

It comes and goes   and turns in turns   like night and day 

spinning spinning  we are 

all of us planets of primordial majesty and longing 

all of us stars 

hiding and seeking in the shadows of our own constellations-- 

in the eclipse of our own conscious and unconscious mind-- 

all of us spinning spinning    in and out of life and death 

in and out of love and unloving 

of desire and diminish 

We swallow and are swallowed by dimensions 

by dark holes of space and other invisible songs 

 

If in the light of darkness you should fade 

like some distant blue 

too late for Winter    too early for Spring 

caught betwixt and between the branches of 

I wish I was here    I wish I were there-- 

hold on to the beauty of the moment 

hold on and let go at every leafy turn 

Now   inhaling joy and exhaling sorrow 

Now   inhaling sorrow and exhaling joy 

And so day follows night    and night the day 

as we follow our own breathing home 

to whoever we are at any given moment 

This presence is the only present 

that we can open and enjoy right now 

this present   a gift that opens us to receiving Life 

of transforming and being transformed 

 

This is what it is to be human 

to risk all   and lose nothing 

to breathe out and breathe in 

to forgive and be forgiven 

To let my words bleed into yours 

and yours mine 

to lay my head upon your heart 

and yours mine 

to dream as air 

and speak as the wind 

 

If in the music of the spheres                                 

you fade into some distant tune 

sing it from your soul 

sing to remember you are breathing 

and feel the spirit moving inside you 

for it moves inside me   as well                                                

Sing to remember                                                                           

the angel who once called you by name                                        

and each shining moment that crosses a bridge of light                

like your own music borrowed from the stars 

and strung across a ceiling of timeless wonder 

Sing     "I'm glad to be here" 

             "I'm glad to be here" 

alone     together     with you     right now 

turning  turning 

while the world healing itself becomes whole 

 

If   in the light of new beginnings  

you should fade to shades of blue 

remember 

this is all there is      we are all we have 

Remember what is real 

and what is Always 

and that is Everything.

 

 

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko was first introduced on the BBC and to the literary world by the legendary James Meary Tambimuttu of Poetry London–-publisher of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Henry Miller and Bob Dylan, to name a few.  his death, it was his friend, the late great Kathleen Raine, who took an interest in her writing and encouraged her to publish. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, she is widely published. Her work has appeared in (among others) XXI Century World Literature (which she represents France) and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She is the recipient of two grants: one from Poets in Need, of which Michael (100 Thousand Poets for Change) Rothenberg is a co-founder; the second—the 2018 Generosity Award bestowed on her by Kathleen Spivack and Joseph Murray for her outstanding service to international writers through SpokenWord Paris where she is Writer/ Poet in Residence.  Her collected poems On the Way to Invisible is forthcoming in 2023.