Vasko Popa Poems
A collection of select Vasko Popa famous poems that were written by Vasko Popa or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.
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Once upon a time there was a mistake
So silly so small
That no one would even have noticed it
It couldn't bear
To see itself to hear of itself
It invented all manner of things
Just to prove
that it didn't really exist
It invented space
To put its proofs in
And time to keep its proofs
And the world to see its proofs
All it invented
Was not so...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Once upon a time there was a number
Pure and round like the sun
But alone very much alone
It began to reckon with itself
It divided multiplied itself
It subtracted added itself
And remained always alone
It stopped reckoning with itself
And shut itself up in its round
And sunny purity
Outside were left the fiery
Traces of its reckoning
They began to chase each other through the dark
To divide...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Until her last breath she enlarges
Her Oxford house
Built in Slavonic
Vowels and consonants
She polishes the corner-stones
Until their Anglo-Saxon shine
Begins to sing
Her death is like a short breath-stop
Under the distant limetrees of her friends...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Nobody rests
This one constantly shifts his eyes
Hangs them on his head
And whether he wants it or not starts walking
backwards
He puts them on the soles of his feet
And whether he wants it or not returns walking
on his head
This one turns into an ear
He hears all that won't let itself...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
We raise our arms
The street climbs into the sky
We lower our eyes
The roofs go down into the earth
From every pain
We do not mention
Grows a chestnut tree
That stays mysterious behind us
From every hope
We cherish
Sprouts a star
That moves unreachable before us
Can you hear a bullet
Flying about our heads
Can you hear a bullet
Waiting to ambush our kiss...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Look here's that uninvited
Alien presence look it's here
A shudder on the ocean of tea in the cup
Rust taking hold
On the edges of our laughter
A snake coiled in the depths of the mirror
Will I be able to hide you
From your face in mine
Look it's the third shadow
On our imagined walk
Unexpected abyss
Between our words
Hoofs clattering
Below the vaults of our palates
Will I...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Just come to my mind
My thoughts will scratch out your face
Just come into my sight
My eyes will start snarling at you
Just open your mouth
My silence will smash your jaws
Just remind me of you
My remembering will paw up the ground under your feet
That's what it's come to between us...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
I've wiped your face off my face
Ripped your shadow off my shadow
Leveled the hills in you
Turned your plains into hills
Set your seasons quarreling
Turned all the ends of the world from you
Wrapped the path of my life around you
My impenetrable my impossible path
Just try to meet me now...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Get out of my walled infinity
Of the star circle round my heart
Of my mouthful of sun
Get out of the comic sea of my blood
Of my flow of my ebb
Get out of my stranded silence
Get out I said get out
Get out of my living abyss
Of the bare father-tree within me
Get out how long must I cry get out
Get out of...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Someone hides from someone else
Hides under his tongue
The other looks for him under the earth
He hides on his forehead
The other looks for him in the sky
He hides inside his forgetfulness
The other looks for him in the grass
Looks for him looks
There's no place he doesn't look
And looking he loses himself...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
The little box which contains the world
Fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box
The little box of the little box
Also fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box
And so it went on forever
The world from the little box
Ought to be inside
The last offspring of the little box
But not one of the little boxes
Inside the little box in...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Some bite from the others
A leg an arm or whatever
Take it between their teeth
Run out as fast as they can
Cover it up with earth
The others scatter everywhere
Sniff look sniff look
Dig up the whole earth
If they are lucky and find an arm
Or leg or whatever
It's their turn to bite
The...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
We'll return the little box
Into the arms
Of her inconspicuously honest properties
We won't do anything
Against her will
We'll simply take her apart
We'll crucify her
On her own cross
Piece her bloated emptiness
And let ooze
All the blue cosmic blood she gathered
We'll sweet her clean of stars
And anti-stars
And everything else that rots inside her
We won't make her suffer
We'll simply put her together again
We'll give back...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Don't box down to the little box
Which supposedly contains everything
Your star and all other stars
Empty yourself
In her emptiness
Take two nails out of her
And give them to the owners
To eat
Make a hold in her middle
And stick on your clapper
Fill her with blueprints
And the skin of her craftsmen
And trample on her with both feet
Tie her to a cat's tail
And chase the...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
The little box gets her first teeth
And her little length
Little width little emptiness
And all the rest she has
The little box continues growing
The cupboard that she was inside
Is now inside her
And she grows bigger bigger bigger
Now the room is inside her
And the house and the city and the earth
And the...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Line the inside of the little box
With your precious skin
And make yourself cozy
Just as you would in your own home
Make space voyages inside her
Gather stars make time squirt its milk
And sleep in the clouds
Just don't go around pretending
You're more important than her length
And wiser than her width
If you do...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Open little box
We kiss your bottom and cover
Keyhole and key
The whole world lies crumpted in you
It resembles everything
Except itself
Not even your clear-sky mother
Would recognize it anymore
The rust will eat your key
Our world and us there inside
And finally you too
We kiss your four sides
And four corners
And twenty-four nails
And anything else you have
Open little box...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Throw into the little box
A stone
You'll take out a bird
Throw in your shadow
You'll take out the shirt of happiness
Throw in your father's root
You'll take out the axle of the universe
The little box works for you
Throw into the little box
A mouse
You'll take out a quaking hill
Throw in your head
You'll take out two
The little box works for you...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Not even in a dream
Should you have anything to do
With the little box
If you saw her full of stars once
You'd wake up
Without heart or soul in your chest
If you slid your tongue
Into her keyhole once
You'd wake up with a hole in your forehead
If you ground her to bits once
Between your teeth
You'd get up with a square head
If you ever...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko
Each strips his own skin
Each bares his own constellation
Which has never seen the night
Each fills his skin with rocks
And plays with it
Lit by his own stars
Who doesn't stop till dawn
Who doesn't bat an eyelid or fall
Earns his own skin
(This game is rarely played)...Read more of this...
by
Popa, Vasko