The Unquiet Land

excerpt

Caitlin looked round again at Michael with eyes that seemed to him to be a little distraught. “Why do you say that?” she asked.
“Doesn’t Padraig’s return bring some of the past back with him?”
“Yes, I suppose it does. But it’s a past that has been dragged forward into the present. It’s been broken and battered and bruised on the way. Parts of it smashed completely. I hardly recognize it. You can’t drag the past around, like a toy on the end of a string, and expect it to remain undamaged.”
“What about Padraig?” Michael’s voice hinted at the unease he was feeling. “Has he remained undamaged?”
“Oh he’s changed utterly,” Caitlin declared. “He left here a young man, one once possessed of the Devil. He returns a priest, possessed of God. What greater change could there be in anyone?”
“Do you think the Devil has really left him?”
“Yes, years ago. Long before he went off to university in Belfast the Devil stopped possessing him.” Caitlin paused, and a shudder trembled through her body. “It used to frighten me so much at first. I’d see him fall and roll around. His eyes would go all funny, and his mouth would open and shut and he’d slobber and … It was awful, Michael. But I learned from my father, and from Padraig himself, not to be frightened by poor Padraig’s fits. I was even able to help him after a while. And then they stopped.”
“And he started hearing voices instead?”
“Yes, poor Padraig. What a strange, strange boy. He would sit up there among the rocks on Donevan. You know Slieve Donevan, where the big hollow is below the tors and it makes a kind of shelter? He used to sit up there all night. Sometimes two or three nights and days at a time, not moving, not eating, just staring out into space. He said he could see Jesus on the cross hanging in the sky away out in front of him over the sea. And he used to stare at the bowed head of Christ, stare at it without moving an eyelash. Then one night there was just the cross, bright like the full moon. And it came towards him through the sky and spoke to him. It said, ‘I am the Lord God Almighty. From you have I cast out all evil. Go you now and cleanse the souls of all mankind, for they have departed from my ways.’ Padraig told me all about it when he came down. I’ve never forgotten his words. He said he had to tell someone or his skull would split open. And he knew I’d believe him and wouldn’t laugh.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes, of course. And I still do. I mean, I believe he had that experience.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763203

Nikos Engonopoulos – Poems

Ten and Four Subjects for a Painting
For Raymond Russell

1. Three men. Two of them sit. The third one, with his beautiful, absentminded glance, his back turned toward the window of the room extends his right arm as if he says something as if he wants to say something.
2. Three men. Two of them stand. The third one sits in the middle of the luxurious room made of ancient marble, of Doric style, with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands on his face. The standing men go near each other and interact with gesticulations and signals, or in a low-tone voice.
3. Three men. Two of them gesticulate as if in a rage or under certain mania. The third man goes to the window and leaning outside, serenely, he tries to discern, in the side street, something hidden from his view.
4. Three men are sitting.
   5 Three men are sitting. One of them has a beard and a very nice glance.
5. Three men. Two of them, standing, greet each other at the bus stop “Two friends”. The third man wears an army uniform.
6. Three women of exquisite and rare beauty, with a special appearance, dressed in heavy colourful gowns. Two of them sit on gold-adorned tools, with beautiful elbows resting on marble columns of archaic style. The third woman is standing and dressed in a velvet gown of strong red colour, with a big bow, made of expensive satin, on her back. Her name is Maria.
   
7. Three men on horses inside the room. Dark attire for walking, spurs, whips, helmets.
8. Three silent men inspect a globe. A table is close to them and on it, a hammer, a sickle, an open book, a compass, and other instruments. The sign reads: “Tourists.”
9. A garden in the middle of the palace a fountain, cypresses on both sides and a clock. Saint Nikolas, dressed in a chasuble during the mass, holds the Gospel on his left hand and on his right a chart that reads: “Floating over the church of people…” Behind him, are many soldiers and among them Saint George, young and beardless, and the saints Dimitrios, young with curly hair, and Barbaros, carrying chains. On the left of the image, a ship in danger, on the right a ship on its route.
10. Three men, two of them are sitting and gazing straight at the people. The third man, standing, vanishes in the shadow of the far room.
11. Three men. Two of them stand, and the third sits, they display the expression of very busy people.
    13 Three men. Two of them sit and face the third man who stands and orates.
12. Three men. Two of them sit, and the third man stands.
    • https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763734

Medusa

Snowstorm
Snow has whitened the sidewalk, silver wishes for early spring, and I open my eyes in your absence to the messenger who brings happy news of another grandchild
—Take the trash can to the curb and leave the recycling bin for next week
The test results came back clean. The disease is managed by medication and exercise. We could go on the trip we’ve planned during the dark days of winter, my beloved, before the heartless Hades took you away
—Bring the coffee, and two spoons of sugar please, but why do I say this? You know me so well by now
The eyes of the owl pierce the night as if crying out loud: give me light and give me sight: darkness defeated by a flash
And I debate with Hades his right to take you, my beloved, but He scorns my idiocy and sings
—If you don’t know me by now, we’re both lost

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763769