Nietzsche's Children
a selection of poetry
published in 1998 by Geneze

PRAYERS AT SINAIA MONASTERY has been published a number of times in both the UK and Romania. Its most interesting publication was in Limba Engleza, Manual pentru clasa a XI-a (Teora), a textbook for students of English. WITH APOLOGIES (But Not Many) has also been published in both the UK and Romania.

PRAYERS AT SINAIA MONASTERY

         Sinaia , high on the sunlit mountain,
         the spirit of your music draws me in close,
         a moment to share in peasant repose.
             Woven light and sound from time that knew when
             all's well with the world and God in heaven.
         And yet there is something that makes me refuse
         short answers to questions that monks would propose
             lest I lose my soul to Chant Gregorian.

             Do I know less than an old mountain woman
                 with hands that grow worn with each working day?
             Should I seek the holy or seek the human?
                 Is it really so simple to kneel down and pray?
             And if I let go will I see their Eden?
                 These things I ponder as I turn away.

*

WITH APOLOGIES
(But Not Many)

         I want to be a poet (like you).
         Not a great one, I know my place;
         sub-Molly Bloom will be good enough for me.

         Didn't a Dublin day in June spawn many a minor word magician?
         (Chapter three, part three of the Spellbook).

         You understand - I don't want fame.
         No, all I want is licence to
         salami-slice prose.

         You know the sort of thing; leave a
         WORD
         splendidly alone on a line so it looks profound:
         a sort of sticking-plaster
         on the gaping hole in my sensibility.

         Yes, I'd like to be a poet, too.
         And from time to time
         I'll even rhyme
         a word. Or two.

         Or maybe close the door
         on Nineteen-o-four.