亚色影库app

An open access publication of the 亚色影库app & Sciences
Spring 2007

Darkened Chessboard & Secret History

Author
Charles Simic
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Charles Simic, a Fellow of the American Academy since 2002, is professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. He has published more than sixty books, including 鈥淯nending Blues鈥 (1986), 鈥淭he World Doesn鈥檛 End: Prose Poems鈥 (1990), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 鈥淎 Wedding in Hell鈥 (1994), 鈥淲alking the Black Cat鈥 (1996), a finalist for the National Book Award, 鈥淛ackstraws鈥 (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 鈥淭he Book of Gods and Devils鈥 (2000), and 鈥淢y Noiseless Entourage鈥 (2005).

Darkened Chessboard

With the night already fallen,
It鈥檚 hard to see who is playing,
Who is watching the game
At the little table in the park
Where no one says a word
Engrossed as they are in the next move.
 

Their dinners are getting cold.
The wives they left behind
Are worrying themselves sick
While they dither here
On the lookout for the white Queen
Last seen with a black pawn.

 

Secret History

Of the light in my room:
Its mood swings,
Dark-morning glooms,
Summer ecstasies.

Spider on the wall,
Lamp burning late,
Shoes left by the bed,
I鈥檓 your humble scribe.

Dust balls, simple souls
Conferring in the corner.
The pearl earring she lost,
Still to be found.

 

Silence of falling snow,
Night vanishing without trace,
Only to return.
I鈥檓 your humble scribe.