Folk Song
Every poet is a monster.
He destroys the voice and the people.
His singing builds the technology that destroys
the earth so that the worms don't eat us.
A drunkard sells his coat.
A scoundrel sells his mother.
Only a poet sells his soul
to separate it from the body that he loves.
________________________
Tomaž Šalamun
Kiss the Eyes of Peace
Selected poems 1964-2014
translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry
Milkweed Editions, 2024
There are far calmer and elder photographs of Tomaž Šalamun
all over the Internet, but this is the photograph for this poem
