THREE SHELL POEMS
THE NAUTILUS SHELL
Let the eye dim with approach of twilit thought
like the opal veil of the Nautilus Shell
unlocked from its bejeweled case of Glasswork Time.
Press its murmuring to the inner ear:
the muffled mask of sandswept depths
galleons of undisturbed miasmic whorl
oceans of the earth’s crust
darkened pure within its
lampless state of indigo
The light arrives
the casement cracks.
The chambered funnel steals upon my wakeless mind
demanding consecration of my torpid soul.
What need the dust?
The glow within transluminates the coil.
ARCHITECTONICA PERSPECTIVA
I deck myself as in a shroud — in black
to kill the outer joints that stiffen pale
to cut the flow from limb and sharply angled thew
stretched out insensate on a bier.
I summon Death — and I am laced with Goldness
heavy sculpture brown with clay
ochre-stained and gilded, leaden, fixing weight
and centered Standing on the beams of light —
the eyes — held down with aurous coins that say
I am the Sundial.
Granuled Mollusk writ with Incan Scroll,
ablaze and scorched the radiance settles
on the core.
ANGEL-WING
Benediction
Descend
in an Aeolian mode of flight
benign with silver aqua-rustling
silent, voiceless chord
to join me swiftly
with the Godhead.
Wings are clapped,
and in an instant
dust-light sprays the midday blinds
like weightless jewels of opaline
the shrine expanding boundless
centers on the inward gaze.
Author of the debut novel Twelfth House, E.C. Traganas has published in The San Antonio Review, The Society of Classical Poets, The Brussels Review, The Penwood Review, Dark Winter Literary Magazine, Agape Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Story Sanctum, Confetti Magazine and countless other journals. Hailed as ‘an artfully created masterpiece’ and a ‘must-read’ by The US Review of Books, her work of haiku & short poetry, Shaded Pergola, features her original illustrations. A Juilliard trained concert pianist & composer by profession, E.C. Traganas is the founder/director of Woodside Writers, a literary forum based in New York City. www.elenitraganas.com
Amethyst Review 