Poems

You look so pained Trained on mine Seems to be a prayer Ah! How I pity you If only it were in my power To ease your pain’ Ah! If only I had been a Healer! Of what then are […]

The shortest night of the year. The night of the longest day Ten o’clock! Night doesn’t fall Every form is crystal-clear and well-defined in the distance. The sky has a palor so semi-mourning: Stifling blue, thin, unfeeling, wordless, The color […]

Thanks to you God the Creator! To have destined me to be a farmer. Oh Master of Nature You have given me the Happiness To work in your company. You give the Earth, the rain and the heat. I fertilize, […]

I have chosen to be a slave, A slave forever. I was born to a race of slaves. Those slaves are subject to no man, Those slaves are all free people, Those slaves are subjects of the land, Slaves of […]

Have pity, Lord on the Earth! O yes: I know you are patient You had reason to be angry long ago At prodigal and careless Humanity. So the hour of Punishment has come. Bow your neck then under the staff, […]

They are heedless Those who walk on city pavements. Heedless of killing and injuring Small creatures moving or not… Ah! How heedful I am at each step Heedful of crushing, of smashing Along the path or through the field Tiny […]

Rain on Brittany. Rain Night and day, no peace No surcease The earth’s drowned. The Sowing threatened. Ditches turned to pools Roads to canals The stream to a waterfall. The valley’s hum The landscape’s élan. Raised from its great bed […]

All Poets on Earth throughout the centuries. Have sung your praises. O Moon Impatient lamp in the starry vault The night’s beauty in the light of your solitude, You, who puts movement in the sea, life in seed and art […]

Sunday they were still grey And their branches naked, The row of poplar trees So tall and so thin On the edge of the meadow, Contemplating their image, In the dark water of the Leger. —Today they’ve changed color. They’re […]