STILL LIFE (April 10, 2020)
Still entwined. Time passes as time does: so much behind us, a little less to go. No easy ride: peace can be vexing—what we’ve left behind as the sun dips down low.
THE OTHER SIDE OF ALONE (August 2, 2021)
What if we sense our years as our own breath? Perhaps impermanence will compel us to leave memories behind? Perhaps we carry them into the future? And try to stay alive and smile after hopeless days’ cry. Alive, as the sea mile across the ocean of solitude. Let us embrace this great silence as an old friend, perhaps then we shall discover each other far on the other side of alone.
HOPE (March 22, 2020)
Listening to your voice on the other side of silence gives me the courage to lose sight and swim there, your voice is hope trusting the future. It calls me now: we are what we hear, doubt is deadlier, but fear cuts deeper than air, and I am not moving toward revenge, I forgive myself my own loneliness. It’s hard to form.
THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO SOUND (June 1, 2021)
There is virtually no sound, just a receding distant noise, a single wave pulsing at its very end. Alone here, steeped in disquieting thoughts trying to burst into song, fumbling to utter a single word, any word. Silence speaks more. I lost my breath. Heroes never die, we feel their tears, blood dried up before they hit the hearts. We look into their eyes, we hear their words, we see their acts, and the rivers roll and a second passed.
STREETS (March 20, 2020)
Looking at the empty streets. Beauty needs to be seen. I know you are happy out there on the other side of emptiness, yet the present is the choice which remains. In admiration, beauty, in poverty wealth and in silence the sound, I will put the gun down, who stands beside me matters more. I’ll remember this second, on the other side of what was emptiness, I’ll remember this present, but the streets will be alive again, only that which needs to be seen will be.
David Dephy is a Georgian-American award-winning poet and author of poetry book “Eastern Star.” He is named as “A Literature Luminary” by Bowery Poetry, “The Stellar Poet” by Voices of Poetry, “The Incomparable Poet” by Statorec, “A Brilliant Grace” by Headline Poetry & Press, and “An Extremely Unique Poetic Voice” by Cultural Daily. He is currently residing and working in New York.
These poems are part of our ongoing series exploring isolation, exile, and “The Everyday Pandemic.” Throughout this series it is our hope to capture the daily toll of life through the pandemic from the perspective of writers and artists who are familiar with the experience of isolation or exile. With this in mind we’ve collected stories, poems, nonfiction essays, and digital art from writers and artists from all walks of life and from all around the globe.
