Sam Hamill (Estados Unidos)
Por: Sam Hamill
The Orchid Flower
Just as I wonder
whether it's going to die,
the orchid blossoms
and I can't explain why it
moves my heart, why such pleasure
comes from one small bud
on a long spindly stem, one
blood red gold flower
opening at mid-summer,
tiny, perfect in its hour.
Even to a white-
haired craggy poet, it's
purely erotic,
pistil and stamen, pollen,
dew of the world, a spoonful
of earth, and water.
Erotic because there's death
at the heart of birth,
drama in those old sunrise
prisms in wet cedar boughs,
deepest mystery
in washing evening dishes
or teasing my wife,
who grows, yes, more beautiful
because one of us will die.
Sam Hamill was born in the United States in 1943. Poet, essayist and translator. Orphan during the Second World War, he served to the Marine corps in his country between 1961 and 1965, and at the moment he dedicates his time to fight against war and in favor of peace movements. He is author of 13 poetry books, three of essays, and of diverse translations from Old Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese and Chinese. He taught in prisons during 14 years, in artist's programs in residence for twenty, and worked thoroughly in favor of woman and unprotected children. He has received scholarships from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Mellon Fund, the U.S. - Japan Friendship Commission, among other recognitions. Founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press. In January of 2003 he founded Poets Against War. He also published a very well known anthology of antiwar poetry. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
