Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Two November-December 2024
Messier 45, or The Seven Sisters, poem by Elif Sezen.
Messier 45, or The Seven Sisters
Seven sisters gazed at seven stars from seven
pyramids and became the stars.
But where is she, where is she now?
Wind-woman whose breath flows from the North,
the lost sister who dreams herself into a holographic
earth every nightfall, every chase of Orion,
Thursdays, mornings …
Ice maiden, the Oceanid who keeps disappearing
on an unbelievable world. She sucked
her sisters’ longing into her lungs and lived for them.
But she woke one morning as a baby,
impeccable grievously, purified
from a distance of 444 light years
She was given a name, a cuddle,
a clock, everything she ever asked for
A random girl was all she wanted to be, watching
shooting stars from the balcony, as Pleiades threw
not-so-powerful gods toward earth.
She finally loved herself and all is well now
And one morning she was a speck of something
floating above the iron sea.
© Elif Sezen
Elif Sezen is a Australian/Turkish multidisciplinary artist, bilingual poet/writer, translator. Her poetry collection A Little Book of Unspoken History was published by Puncher & Wattmann (2018), Universal Mother by Gloria SMH Press (2016). She translated Ilya Kaminsky’s acclaimed collection ‘Dancing in Odessa’ into Turkish, published in 2013 by Artshop Press. She received the YTB Turkish Literary Awards 2021 – First prize in Poetry and was shortlisted for the Born Writers Award 2023. Elif’s book A Little Book of Unspoken History was awarded Distinguished Favorite in NYC Big Book Award 2024 – Poetry. Her poems appeared in national and international journals and anthologies. She holds a PhD from Monash University, and currently lives and works in Melbourne. Elif’s website: https://www.elifsezen.com/