The Violence of the World Says Nothing of Mine
Written by Emmanuel Merle
Translated from French by Jennifer Barber
Narrated by Bill Wolak
France
The violence of the world says nothing of mine
a stray bullet baptized by fear
In their blue pavane the stars
don’t greet the world
they sign no treaties
Here on earth the price of a dance
is always the price of the sun
fully charged
incandescent carnivorous
the price is death but we summon the dance
Many times I’ve climbed the peaks
to interrogate the sky
and rip the shirt stretched tight
over its dark belly but
no one questions the cardinal points
east west north south
when we surprise them straying
like migratory birds
Emmanuel Merle lives in Grenoble, France. He has published more than twenty books of poetry and more than 200 artist’s books. He is a literary teacher and president of the Espace Pandora, an association dedicated to cultural action and the defense of poetry.
Jennifer Barber’s new poetry collection, The Sliding Boat Our Bodies Made, is forthcoming from The Word Works in 2022. She is the founding editor of the literary journal Salamander, and she lives in the Boston area.