~after Philippos of Thessaloniki
Do you see him?—
he’s leaving his little heavy discus of lead
for marking the margins and the columns.
And his knife—for trimming and notching his reed pens.
And his longest ruler.
And his dry, ink-stained, fine-pored pumice stone
from the beach—for absorbing
mistaken ink, and for gently
rubbing away a wrong mark.
He puts them all there, together.
Not silver, not gold—but his grateful
donation today in honor of the Muses.
Everyday things—worth nothing.
Yes, of course. But old age has clouded his eyes.
He can’t work any more.
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Renditions, a book of poetry by Reginald Gibbons, will be available from Four Way Books in 2021.
Reginald Gibbons
Reginald Gibbons will publish a new book of poems, Renditions, in early 2021 (Four Way Books). With Ilya Kutik, he has completed translating new volumes of selected poems by Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva that will soon be submitted to publishers. He teaches creative writing and translation at Northwestern, where he is the director of the Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program. He's at work on a second novel.
