We all have moments of remembering something meaningful in our past and comparing it with now. Alice Kavounas made it the basis of her poem “Two Chairs”:
Two Chairs
If I were sitting in this chair, with you
alongside in this identical one,
both of us leaning slightly forward
facing the dancing fire as we talked,
knowing that the fire was also dancing
on the polished floorboards, that all of it —
two chairs, our backs, the fire — was reflected
in the shimmer of the living room mirror,
this winter evening might have been one
to recall, perhaps mention, years from now
in a memoir. As it is, both chairs are empty.
The mirror has blackened. You are lost;
I am busy dismantling the house: books,
walls, floor — all of it consumed by fire.
(Quoted from page 62 of Ornament of Asia, by Alice Kavounas. Shearsman Books, 2009.)
For a brief biography of Alice Kavounas, click here. For images of or relating to Alice Kavounas, click here.
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