Poem: After

In honor of the Vernal Equinox, here's another one of my favorite Octavio Paz poems. I really love the raw sinewy visuals contained within his words.

After the journey of emotional compression in the earlier verses, the ending is such a relief that my heart is filled with tremendous hope and assurance that no matter how dark it ever seems, sunshine will always prevail!

Since the powerful symbolism seems harsh on the first read, I encourage multiple readings to allow it soak in fully.

after

~ Octavio Paz ~

after chopping off all the arms that reached out to me;

after boarding up all the windows and doors;

after filling all the pits with poisoned water;

after building my house on the rock of no,

inaccessible to flattery and fear;

after cutting off my tongue and eating it;

after hurling handfuls of silence

and monosyllable of scorn at my loves;

after forgetting my name;

and the name of my birthplace;

and the name of my race;

after judging and sentencing myself

to perpetual waiting,

and perpetual loneliness, I heard

against the stones of my dungeon of syllogisms,

the humid, tender, insistent

onset of spring.