ECHO (an excerpt) …That August I would go out into the city with no expectations at all. I roamed around it as though I were saying farewell for all time. In the evenings you no longer had to hunt for a space on the lower banks of the Seine; after
It was October of 2018, the tenth issue of the literary journal, “Metai,” and it contained Valdas Papievis’s “Ėko.” It wasn’t a short story, as one might conjecture from the text’s structure, density and richness, but the subtitle called it a fragment of a novel, bestowing hope that in time it would become a novel. It
A Meditation on Ruin, Inner Peace, and the Beauty of Being Read More »
I first met Erika Drungytė, a poet, translator, and the editor-in-chief of the monthly cultural publication Nemunas, when she acted as one of the jurists at a literary contest. I was one of the contestants. I still remember the feedback she gave us about our writing and especially the importance of what she described as the
Cosmos, Earth, and the Laws of Growth and Decay Read More »
Mood (I) Happy young men with shaved heads Waving orange marigold garlands Dance – almost in flight – and sing Flowers fragranced by fall’s hare krishna Wherever you go, the flowers seem to follow From parks and plazas, alleys and squares Annoying and celebratory, sharp and sweet Happy in a way not ours, tenderly sad as
According to the publisher’s blurb, Jūros nėra (There Is No Sea), the fifth book of poetry by the poet and philosopher Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, is conceptual and performative. In it, the author develops the idea actualised in her earlier collection, Esu aptrupėjusios sienos (I Am Crumbled Walls): the interaction between images and texts expands the semantic
There Is No Sea: A Poetry Book as a Construct and an Event Read More »
there is a river there are women as straight as strings, always straining to be in tune. you won’t find a single piece of fuzz on their coats. there are men in suits who always shake your hand in greeting. they smile – but circumspectly. there is a vagrant who sleeps at the Šilo bus
Aušra Kaziliūnaitė Read More »
The neighborhood grannies from my childhood used to grow dahlias near the fence: I was always afraid of the darkness and moisture between their leaves, even though their picked blossoms used to tickle me when I sniffed them. Late fall is the only time when I would sidle closer and observe through the net how,
Light of the Dahlias Read More »
As I write, Lithuania ranks first in the world as the country worst affected by coronavirus. These numbers hurt the most when we lose someone dear to us. On December 11, 2020, just before noon, my friend and mentor, Dr. Irena Veisaitė, died in Vilnius from complications from Covid-19 and pneumonia. Irena was 92. The
In Memoriam, Irena Veisaitė, January 9, 1928 – December 11, 2020 Read More »
In Lithuanian, the saying “It’s just some little flowers” means that the event in question has not reached its full extent, that it is only the beginning, nothing to be taken too seriously. However, sometimes the things that, at first glance, seem simple and superficial are anying but. Sometimes, hidden depths and additional meanings lie
The Little Flowers of Saulytis Read More »
i like you i like you but i tell my friend that i like patricia and thank my brother at his wedding for seating me next to giedrė but really i like writing to monika because she has this pink jacket and she never meets up with me because really i like to lie in
