Tonight the sky
came down further two three steps
from itself
and with a relatively starry interest
leaned over to comprehend
the accusations claimed to it by
Despair
- who introduced itself as a completely
unbeknown former client -
"Here below
abandonment riots helplessly
all of the soul
erected to offer shelter and prosperity
to mortality
remains empty
no human sets foot in it
gone missing
owes a bunch of communal charges
for how long will dreams pay up
the deficit
and the deceased of course delight in everything
for how long will they exist?
Send a human."
Oh Despair
the most durable of all sorrows
who rarely graces consolation
how you have kneeled clinging
from the sky as if it knows
what a human is
not even you Despair
knows what a human is
despite loving humanity all the way up
to the sky.
---------------------------------------------
Personal notes:
This poem was published as part of the collection 'We moved next door' (2007).
The main theme of the poem is abandonment and loss (of a significant other, of one's own life - mortality) and the inevitable feelings of despair and sorrow that these bring. Its narrative includes a vocal exchange between 'Despair' and the 'sky', two abstract terms that Dimoula personifies in this poem (though one can argue that the 'sky' is not an abstract term, it is used here to allude to the idea of mortality, and perhaps divinity).
The words that 'Despair' shares with the sky are full of metaphors and personifications (abandonment as a riot, the soul as a house, dreams as guarantees, and the deceased as living beings).
In these words, Dimoula suggests that humans dream to reconcile with an existing or potential loss (and perhaps their mortality) and that our souls remain vulnerable to these losses.
These are desperate words, and this is where the poem's comedic undercurrents kick in: Despair in its personification is actually desperate (it voices out a despair), and Dimoula is subtly sarcastic in the last two stanzas, acknowledging that Despair's despair is actually futile.
In those last two stanzas, the poet doubts that the 'sky' and Despair can understand what it means to be human. Why can't they?Perhaps this implies that desperation is an illogical state with no particular meaning, which can only be described as 'human', and as part of our own mechanisms for dealing with loss and mortality. The last two lines suggest that we remain in desperation until our death, our 'ascent' to the sky.
Personal notes:
This poem was published as part of the collection 'We moved next door' (2007).
The main theme of the poem is abandonment and loss (of a significant other, of one's own life - mortality) and the inevitable feelings of despair and sorrow that these bring. Its narrative includes a vocal exchange between 'Despair' and the 'sky', two abstract terms that Dimoula personifies in this poem (though one can argue that the 'sky' is not an abstract term, it is used here to allude to the idea of mortality, and perhaps divinity).
The words that 'Despair' shares with the sky are full of metaphors and personifications (abandonment as a riot, the soul as a house, dreams as guarantees, and the deceased as living beings).
In these words, Dimoula suggests that humans dream to reconcile with an existing or potential loss (and perhaps their mortality) and that our souls remain vulnerable to these losses.
These are desperate words, and this is where the poem's comedic undercurrents kick in: Despair in its personification is actually desperate (it voices out a despair), and Dimoula is subtly sarcastic in the last two stanzas, acknowledging that Despair's despair is actually futile.
In those last two stanzas, the poet doubts that the 'sky' and Despair can understand what it means to be human. Why can't they?Perhaps this implies that desperation is an illogical state with no particular meaning, which can only be described as 'human', and as part of our own mechanisms for dealing with loss and mortality. The last two lines suggest that we remain in desperation until our death, our 'ascent' to the sky.
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