Live Encounters Poetry & Writing April 2024.
Mannabhav, poems by Dorian Stoilescu.
Mannabhav
zero hour. always – vertical tunnel
stuck in the crypt of the ocean – missiles
continuously hitting our hearts…
atomic deities exploding,
when the darkness is burned
by silence, when all the steps collapse
when every day is sunday
when words become birds
and you a nameless star
Narrations
we are bitter roots,
wasted,
placed into an abandoned spaceship,
racing without any controls towards…
new stars.
we have no way to stay in one place.
it’s like we realize that the ancient terra
becomes hysteria for the universe,
and the pains
deeper than the pits of the oceans,
are tsunamis
engulfing
the moons, meteorites, suns, and stars…
there, the sufferings remain beyond death. deep sap,
they feed the desires…
yet we are not afraid of death,
we are not afraid of what always should have been,
after all… that waste of ours,
that stretching through pains,
increases…
higher than we thought
ever. we eventually become
the forgotten talisman
touching
masks
memories
spirits.
last night
last night I drove a tank, as if
I wouldn’t have ever learned how to drive, as if
I wouldn’t have had any direction, as if
I didn’t know where I was, as if
nothing was mine – as if I was
programmed to kill.
returned from Ukraine, I saw it … I saw it all…
… the whole thing… I went in full force.
everything… everywhere… levelled all…
every soul and brick ever remembered…
I demolished my own house – which
I had deified it for so long. then I shattered
my whole hometown’s buildings. all…
was left behind, just mountains of rubble…
then I found myself on the side of a road… australian…
I was watching endless convoys of trucks. the sun
dawned herds of hopes, fears, trials. I was dozing
in traffic in a tight car. a new day. trying to get back,
I will attend to work quickly. close to me,
a group of kangaroos stare at me in amazement.
© Dorian Stoilescu
Dorian is a bilingual writer (English and Romanian), lives in Sydney, and is a lecturer at Western Sydney University. Born in Galaţi, Romania, he has participated in writing activities in both Romania and Australia. He primarily writes poetry but also contributes to stories, plays, and essays. So far he published three volumes of poetry “under the wheels of truck”, “the stethoscope”, and “seeds, drone, memories – about Ukraine”. The fourth volume “on a too distant beach” is in the final stage under review. He has also contributed to English-language publications, including the ‘Western Sydney EZine Anthology,’ the ‘New Writers Group Inc. Anthology,’ and ‘41 Arguments Avant La Lettre – Romanian/Australian Literature Anthology, Articulation Project.
https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/20908909
https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/26118677
https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/the-universal-within-the-local
Romanian Links:
https://www.viata-libera.ro/vlg-cultura/128507-angoasa-si-protest
https://www.viata-libera.ro/vlg-cultura/128989-carte-de-debut-un-mad-max-galatean-al-poeziei