The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov

Hear Pavel on CATHOLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL.  New programs are posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Pavel's podcasts continue weekly at pavelreads.com and are archived there.

Lovers of Christian literature will be interested in the Idylls Press Website.

Pavel's Mysteries and Stations in the Manner of Ignatius brings together meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. See www.amazon.com for more information about Lion Sun: Poems by Pavel Chichikov and Deep Wonder: Poems by Philip C. Kolin, a collection of "poems you can pray," both published by Grey Owl Press, or write to nlevine@erols.com. Read the review of Lion Sun on Scribble on the Net, an electronic journal of New Zealand and international poetry.

Pavel's poems inspired by Goya's etchings are at www.homagetogoya.com. And a selection of his photos can be seen at Catholic Images by Pavel Chichikov

Enjoy artist Timothy Jones's blog page, which features his painting "Fallen Oak." And be sure to visit the lovely site on the Way of the Cross at Gethsemane Garden Stones!  

All poems on this page are by Pavel Chichikov. They may be freely distributed, if not for profit, upon the permission of Pavel Chichikov (fishhook@erols.com) and must be credited to Pavel Chichikov. No alterations in the text may be made. All copyright restrictions apply.





 

Photo from Wikipedia Commons



THE LONG GREEN

 

A dragonfly recurs

To feast on smallest fry

Four wings a blur of lavender

Great goggle eyes

And keel a chord in air

Drawn by a whisper

 

Come back

When the mosquitoes rise

And the sparks

Of fire flies

But eat no fire

In the dark

 

Avoid the leaf

Where mantis preys

By day

That long green thief—

Catch and be not

Caught




THE TWELFTH WORM

 

Those suave white tents

Those silken seraglios

Defoliant havens

Harems of worms

Turbans in branches

Tent caterpillars

Emergent they turn

Summer to winter

Those blasphemous

Christ haters

See how their frass

Falls to the ground




BRAINLESS ONE

 

On a sandbar in the river

A muddy hillock clambers out,

Rumple neck and rubber feet

Uphold a gaping horny snout

 

It is the air, the sun, the flow,

The safety of the mud below

Draws this animal of brown

Earless bottoms up and down

 

A river and a legless throne

To bask an animated stone,

Brainless one who teaches me

To rise to such eternities

 



THE ASCENSION

 

Day was rising when Our Lord rose up,

Sun was rising, wind was rising,

Dew was rising from the meadows—steps

Of angels rose as if on ladders climbing

 

Why do you stand gaping overhead

You friends of Jesus? Sorrowing is done;

Christ the Lord has risen from the dead,

The kingdom of salvation has begun

 

Or will it vanish, never to be seen?

By sunlight and by starlight we remember

Purity and kindliness unstained,

Storm and calm and sanctifying power

 

Friends of Jesus, why do you distrust

His promises, for did He not foretell

He would return within the Eucharist,

Prevail by grace against gates of hell?

 

When you feel His love within you burn

Take this as a sign He will return;

When you see a flame consume a flame

Soul by soul He will His kingdom claim

—From Mysteries and Stations in the Manner of Ignatius (Kaufmann Publishing, 2005)



HOW SMOOTH IS EVIL

 

How smooth is evil, how uncanny in its mimicry

Which can dispense philanthropy and sympathy,

Pronounce full and sufficient orthodoxy,

Display its pious courtesy, gentility

 

But if there is no continence of will,

No sacrifice of appetite, that it be stilled,

Then every outward charity infects and kills

No loving is that is an exercise in skill

 

The outward drape of inner base intent

Impoverished and soiled, impaired and bent

Will not be straightened by its sentiment

Appearance of a good is evils armament

 

But evil will reply: I am combined

And mixed, for excellence and ill I was designed

 



Listen to Pavel read "The Father" (MP3 format).


THE FATHER

(translated from the German: “Der Vater,” by Albrecht Haushofer, 1903–1945. Haushofer was shot by the SS near the gate of Moabit Prison on April 25, 1945)

 

The deepest folktale from the eastern lands

Tells us that some spirits of the foulest force

Rest imprisoned in the midnight seas,

Sealed up by the Lord God’s worried hands,

 

Until once in a thousand years, there comes

A fisherman who’s granted this decision:

Release the awful powers from their prison,

Or cast away at once those fettered demons.

 

For my father there was this to choose:

Push the demon back into its cell,

By strength of will confine it to its hell.

 

My father broke the seal and let it loose.

He did not see the breath of evil’s flight.

He let the demon drift into the night.




FIRST AND LAST

 

Suppose the April sun which rises earlier

And earlier these April mornings were

To rise still higher, brighter than it did before,

Earlier trespassing on the midnight stars

 

And if it set still later in the April dusk

And entered into umbra and penumbra shade,

Surrounding all the planet with a golden husk,

Enfolding both the hemispheres, the night delayed

 

Until all light were daylight and the Earth were clothed

From zenith to horizon to the firmament,

And every wave and furrow of the sea exposed

And every rolling contour of the continents

 

That would be the telling of the end of all,

And it will come at last, that was the first to fall

 




The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov / Last modified May 4, 2008 / Poems copyright 1994-2008 Pavel Chichikov/ URL: http://users.erols.com/fishhook/. Opinionsexpressed here are solely those of the author.