Further Correspondence

—After Τζένη Μαστοράκη

The deep? Yes, the deep has been

a long preoccupation

of my own as well, probably

since childhood when I first

happened upon that darkness

dwelling upon the face

of the deep, and the Spirit of God

moving upon the surface

of the waters. The deep, those waters,

the darkness and the Spirit

both brooding and moving upon

their surfaces have drawn me.

My young mind then and my feeble

mind now have borne

a measure of dizziness as my vision

plunged beyond the roiling

gesture of the deep.

And now, I feel that I glimpse

something of the extravagant

reach of the deep, and suspect

that the deep extends both

up and down, extends

in every conceivable path spanning

every conceivable direction.

-

O dear obscure darkness, O radiant

and expansive deep, O

vertiginous, eternal waters,

receive me as into thy harbor,

thy unceasing embrace.