The Merry-Go-Round
So here we go again you and I
picking up speed on our magic steed
riding sliding up and down
whirling round and round
with no ending or beginning
Everything comes full circle
Everything passes through us--
a breath a memory a vision
some inexplicable Miracle
that has happened before
that is happening right now
all at the same time
One moment…
you’re a child of six
gliding into the sunset
on a wooden pony
Next moment…
you’re a child of six-ty shuffling
back into yourself
like your favorite rerun
Tonight
your dreams have packed their bags
and are leaving for Paris without you
your night-lite is flirting with that first star on the right
all the lovers in the world are coming together
in spontaneous combustion
In this very moment…
a stellar explosion
thousands of light years away
is spinning through space
is becoming that radiant smile on your down-turned face
Past future and present
are converging in harmonic synchronistic rhythm
The sun and moon are aligning
with Venus Jupiter and Mars
Energy synergy electricity deaf lightning
is coursing through your varicose veins
Every broken atom every imagined pain
every cell is being reborn
Words that have flown south
missing in action or in revision
are coming alive are exploding into light
are taking back the night
The unspoken and unsaid at this very minute
are orbiting your head
Soon…
dust particles are colliding coalescing
merging converging to form a new planet
The music of the spheres is unrehearsed
Black cosmic rays are holding the magnetic field--
a convex mirror in reverse
My tears a cinematic film
are rolling back into my eyes
Regret that once escaped my lips
is falling to its knees
is begging me to PLEASE not wear it
like a saddle ‘round my hips
is begging for forgiveness
So here were are again you and I
on a carousel in the dark
We fall off our horse and dust ourselves off
and fall in love again of course
before it grows cold and stark
One day we’ll get it right you know
The moon is out tonight you know
Nothing is by chance
The music is playing
Remember our first kiss?
Please save me this one last dance
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.
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