Poems by Gjoko Zdraveski 

the lord is my shepherd

1.
i’ve forgotten my prayer
amidst
this verbosity of mine.

i keep losing
god
in lounges and ticket offices.

he’s a nobleman:
he’s above passport controls
and flight schedules
for airlines.

the two of us always travel separately
and always
arrive home
apart.

too loudly ring inside me
the sounds of departures and arrivals.

we need centuries of silence
to find each other again.


2.
with a whisper i search for you within.
so that i may invoke you,
and yet not drive you away.

i’ve forgotten my prayer
amidst
this verbosity of mine.

i’ve forgotten to be quiet.
to sit still.
to wait.
to think of nothing.
with eyes closed and smiling
with a whisper i invoke you:
the lord is my shepherd
the lord is my shepherd
the lord is my shepherd
 
Translated from Macedonian by Kalina Janeva
 
words
we thought
we had conquered words
we thought
the silence of embraces
was enough to rise above
the cities and
the hours we had passed
lonely in them

we thought
the vow of silence would make us wiser
in the eyes of chatterboxes
and in the eyes of those we love
and whose absence frightens us
 
Translated from Macedonian by Kalina Janeva
 
 

Gjoko Zdraveski (1985) – poet, short prose writer, essayist. He has published four books of poetry and one book of short-short stories. His poetry has been translated into several European languages. He has taken part in poetry festivals in Europe. Since 2015 he has been part of the Versopolis project. 
 
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