Author: peterlebaige

thinner than water                        lament for a civil war                        Greece, 1943 – 1949 there was blood in the Aoos, the Aliakmonas, the Pineios, the Enipeas, the Evrotas, the Acheron, there was blood in crumbling…

thirst i thirst  for the  w   a    t    e     r       that  lay s ________________________the     sk  y    bac k under  the     o  a   r       under   the  stroke of  d  a  r   k   that   r i ses   on the   s m o o t  h the   sk  y        a   dance    down      in  blue i thirst   for the…

moon fish for a saddened one moon fish, do not swim in tears, don’t wane toward the dark, the shore of stranded pools, wax toward the ocean sun that skims on your eye, the golden ring of your eye, burst, moon fish, burst from the sea like the swell that rolls the boat under sail,…

time around with de Chirico round noon in those suburbs, even the main street you can stop at the curb, just hold yourself from stepping down to the road to cross over. in that split silence hear the clock of days, know yourself under its hands longer than afternoons. in the telltale winds that kick…

a tiger tale for her born in the year of the baker said ‘i will break your bread in my hands and find your fragrance with greedy fingers, your wine will sing in my glass’, she purred in demur and whistled between fangs of new moon ‘my coat would burn your hand in touch, better…

Aias One of the heroes of Homer’s Iliad, known more by the Latin form of his name, Ajax, whose shield was even layers of hide capped with one of bronze. when we woke where the square of hours leaned into five, the tide, placed offering of calm, the earth’s arm in dark sleeve stayed at…

the sea be rosewater in memoriam of Manos, patron of the arts, you shared your laughter, sail in peace beijing july 2009 Manos Pazianos, owner of the Aegean Arthouse Cafe in Beijing died suddenly two weeks ago; his dream of a white mediterranean square in this dusty circle is gone. These words are my tribute…

up late staying up late for so many things need to be said the day will not admit nor spare you a sheaf of hours to thresh in saying, for so many things need to be said, the town to be replaced by a fade of broken tears, the loves unbought to be paid for,…

scoria flower muse: 36 views near & far of rangitoto inspired by Hokusai’s ’36 Views of Fuji’ series of woodcuts I. through the rain a shadow of itself standing off-shore rangitoto somewhere else in sun II. that slow inhale to the peak held double exhale to the sea III. rain cloud lifted neat along its…

At Jason’s funeral today seeing his mum who is in her eighties reminded me the Chinese saying ‘White hair seeing off black hair’ meaning the pain of a parent burying their child. Fare you well in that other world, brother Jason, the owls are weeping here. emerald in black for JJ ‘Emerald Black’ RIP you…

under the shoe  to Frank Le Baige moments i find myself sitting looking down at the floor feeling i’m on such a height staring down at something there recall it was you, brother, and your madness stamped with a diagnosis of ‘paranoid schizophrenia’ by a man with watery eyes i couldn’t tell apart from the…

cafe mariner    with apologies to Samuel Coleridge at a distance catching sight of him in a plastic chair at the cafe his eyes were looking further than any sea you might have heard of the man with salt on his breath and seaweed in his hair dreadlocks i thought at first then smelt the…