Ocean of Earth
Translated By Ron Padgett
To G. de Chirico
I have built a house in the middle of the Ocean
Its windows are the rivers flowing from my eyes
Octopi are crawling all over where the walls are
Hear their triple hearts beat and their beaks peck against 
the windowpanes
House of dampness
 House of burning
 Season’s fastness
 Season singing
 The airplanes are laying eggs
 Watch out for the dropping of the anchor
  Watch out for the shooting black ichor 
It would be good if you were to come from the sky
The sky’s honeysuckle is climbing
The earthly octopi are throbbing
And so very many of us have become our own gravediggers
Pale octopi of the chalky waves O octopi with pale beaks
Around the house is this ocean that you know well
  And is never still
 Translated from the French 
Source: Poetry (October 2015)


