Truth-Sayer
In a time of deceit
telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
~ George Orwell
Beware the Ides of March
Beware scorched-earth politicians
assassins who conspire
The soothsayer the truth-sayer
the know-it-alls even the liars
will try to warn you
of what’s to come---
The Fall of the Roman Empire
cannot be undone
but where was it written?
Beware
this calm indifference this i don’t care
this veil of darkness that falls over us --
or is that napalm in the air ?
Is the Apocalyptic sighhhhhh
the dust of memory the memory of ash?
Was the foretelling of The End
baptised in a river of blood and tears
In exchange for corporate cash?
or was it our fears
that ran us into the ground
Are we humans born of lust
or are we merely just stardust
Where was it written?
Every night
i weep into my pillow
I talk in my sleep
I slip out of my body
and into the deep surrender
of the Unknown
Nightmares visions embers
that burn that peek
around the corners
of my mind
All the invisibles
that leave their mark
that render us blind--
the nuclear bombs
of explosion implosion
of a world gone mad
will leave you sighing
will leave you dying
to know what is real
and what is not
Sometimes we’re all here
sometimes we’re not
We live in a glass house
of shattered dreams
on the edge of a burnt-out globe
Is the glass half empty?
Is the glass half full?
We are living dying
beyond our means
Nothing goes so well with Everything
I say
Nothing is always
and never what it seems
Our eyes these windows
these crystal balls
are but portals into the Light
Past recalls Future
with every heartbeat
Haunting memories
follow me swallow me
wherever i turn--
expect me to
remember remember
what I cannot contain
Do i not burn like the stars?
Do i not feel your pain?
The leaves are turning brown now
and i am shades of blue
Doomsday
is on someone’s calendar
and i still don’t have a clue
Who will show me the way?
Is it you soothsayer?
Can you soothe my soul?
Can you soothe my heart?
Are you here to remind me
remind me
remind me
that dying is an art
Will you comfort me in sorrow
when today is already tomorrow?
when i am forever biting my lip?
Will you ever let it slip--
where it is written?
And who?
Is doing the writing?
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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 was 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.
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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