you are always with me
even when you are not
forever
Life's full empty mirror
Breath's bittersweet sigh
color of Nothingness
transparent as angels
color of darkness
perforated with light
color of tears
fallen
from the dotted blue blanket of Sky
you are always with me
even when you are not
suspended like the crescent moon
the alphabet of stars
the space untraveled
between us
as if
inextinguishable
presence and absence
relinquish their names
surrender themselves to the Invisible
as if
only
without holding
may we trembling feel
the infinite nearness
of our immense
aching
fragility
i marvel
at the innocence
of your tiny unopened fists
how
butterflies still
fly from your lips
how mine drown
in the drool of gurgled silence
how
even as the umbilical cord
unwinds around my neck
my voice so far away
is trying to reach you--
has buried itself so inexorably
in your muffled lullaby
i am always with you
even when i am not
Let Me Magnify You
Seen under a microscope
they so often resemble
trails left by meteors
the lunar surface of dreams
the intricate lacework of saints
(who--I like to imagine--
blinded by their own handkerchiefs
could no longer judge the perfection
of their devotion)
No matter the emotional landscape—
be it joy fear pain sorrow—
this human tide of feeling will rise
and fall
as surely as breath
Where is this flow
emerging from?
returning to? --
its mysterious source.
leaving behind only
its invisible fingerprints
One by one
they disappear as they appear
beyond our scope of vision
bathed in streams of consciousness
that glisten as they toil
Healing is like that—
will shed its own skin
will find its way back
will seek only healing
Tears bear us up under
the scrutiny of the small
whose heavy eyelids open
in the presense of grace
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. After his death, it was his friend, the late great Kathleen Raine, who took an interest in her writing and encouraged her to publish. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and a former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, she is widely published. She has been a featured guest at Shakespeare & Company, on a number of occasions, as well as performed or read in other literary venues in the City of Light and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in (among others) XXI Century World Literature (in which she represents France), Jazz and Literature and Maintenant : Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at 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 Poet in Residence. She is also Writer/Poet in Residence at The Creative Process. Her selected poems On the Way to Invisible was recently published by The Opiate Books and is now available. Her selected poems The Looking Glass is forthcoming in 2026.
You are on fire, my friend… 🔥
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