Etel Adnan & TIME

The Lebanese-American French poet, Etel Adnan, won the International Griffin Prize for her book TIME (Nightboat 2019) --- a poetry of the postcard, as her translator, Sarah Riggs, observed. Here are some lines I've taken from that book, lines I find arresting and that conjure reflection:

there's a time in autumn when the

trees change their nature, and

wake up beyond

matter; then one sees them come back to

their ordinary selves

*

I share in the properties

of the sky. I grow

like a tree.

*

I watched the sky a-sheep

with clouds

*

writing comes from a dialogue

with time

*

the cult of the dead is but an excuse

for leaving the poor to rot in

prisons.

*

Being is single,

like rivers,

it goes down; like gardens

it goes out on the verge of

the absolute

*

Around here rain is made neither

of water,

nor of angels

*

the days are enclosed in

a bottle of aspirin

I tell you, I'm dying

but the process is not that stunning ...

*

Objects are

the children

of their

own shadows