Helene Cardona [USA / France]

 

A House Like a Ship

 
I live in a house like a ship
        at times on land, at times on ocean.
I will myself into existence
        surrender, invite grace in.
I heed the call of the siren.
        On the phantom ship 
I don’t know if I’m wave
       or cloud, undine or seagull.
Lashed by winds, I cling tight to the mast.
       Few return from the journey. 
I now wear the memory of nothingness 
       a piece of white sail wrapped like second skin.
  
(From “Life in Suspension”, Salmon Poetry) 
 
 
 
   Ouranoupolis Pantoum
 
A love song cast upon the vastness of the deep
                                                            —Carl Sagan
 
She came to me once in a dream
luminescent, clad in white, elated
so much younger than I ever knew her
thankful for my return to Chalkidiki.
 
Luminescent, clad in white, elated
for the first time since her abrupt departure
thankful for my return to Chalkidiki
where holy mountains stretch into sea.
 
For the first time since her abrupt departure
monasteries sculpted high on rocks lance skies and suns
where holy mountains stretch into sea
trident beckoning the Aegean.
 
Monasteries sculpted high on rocks lance skies and suns
direct line to God 
trident beckoning the Aegean.
She embraced me with such love,
 
direct line to God 
we were one. 
She embraced me with such love, 
pain or suffering never existed
 
we were one. 
No resources wasted like bread in empty houses
where pain or suffering no longer exist. 
Only bliss and she the flower Mage
 
no resources wasted like bread in empty houses
she makes me gardener of memories. 
Only bliss and she the flower Mage
roses climbing back into my life
 
she makes me gardener of memories.
I wake with sheer joy 
roses climbing back into my life 
I too sea, sand, wind, and pine honey.
 
I wake with sheer joy
beams of love and innocence 
I too sea, sand, wind, and pine honey
altered like a glimpse into now.
 
Beams of love and innocence 
so much younger than I ever knew her
altered like a glimpse into now 
she came to me once in a dream.
 

(From “Life in Suspension”, Salmon Poetry) 
 
 
 
Shaman in Residence
 
 
Halfway through the journey
      she finds herself inside the whale,
confined to mull her condition over,
      what led this far,
      what lies behind the baleen,
      what passageway to heed.
Memories transpire on the edge of iodine—
      girl on a swing
      deep blueness of lovers’ embrace
      horses catching fish—
till ocean expels her on the shore,
      diamond pain, weapon and jewel,       
      sea glass licked by the sun.
The way land greets her,
      she enters this sacred
      place called winter, elusive epiphany.
With a different face, liquid language,
      she seeps into sand in search of treasures.
 
(From “Dreaming My Animal Selves”, Salmon Poetry)
 
 

 

Author’s Bionote: 

* Hélène Cardona: A citizen of the United States, France and Spain, Hélène Cardona is a poet and actress, the author of seven books, most recently “Dreaming My Animal Selves” and “Life in Suspension” and the translations “The Abduction” (Maram Al-Masri), “Birnam Wood” (José Manuel Cardona), “Beyond Elsewhere” (Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac), “Ce que nous portons” (Dorianne Laux) and Walt Whitman’s “Civil War Writings”. She wrote her thesis on Henry James for her Masters in American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College and Loyola Marymount University, and worked as an interpreter for the Canadian Embassy in Paris. She recipient of over 20 literary awards and honors, including the Woman Global Award, an Albertine and FACE Foundation Prize, and the Independent Press Award, she received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut and the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía. Her work has been translated into 20 languages. She also translated Rimbaud, Baudelaire, René Depestre, Ernest Pépin, Aloysius Bertrand, Eric Sarner, Jean-Claude Renard, Nicolas Grenier, Christiane Singer, and John Ashbery.