Preferred Citation: Sutzkever, A. A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1991 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5q2nb3z7/


 
Blind Milton58 (1954–1962)

Trained Animals

Words, words! Trained animals behind bars,
I release you. Flee back to the jungle, sweet slaves!
Anonymous new hymns — veins of silence,
I am drawn to their sex not-unsealed.

I shall find among desert rocks
That alphabet with no words, understood by
Locust and rain. What an enormous discovery:
The dead will answer and a stone will smile!

My poems will be read by metals, minerals,
Fires, devouring one another, turn to ash.
— Hey, Rimbaud, you sorcerer, splitter of vowels,
Tell me, boy: what's all the fuss about you?


Blind Milton58 (1954–1962)
 

Preferred Citation: Sutzkever, A. A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1991 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5q2nb3z7/