Ray Greenblatt | Mediterranean Poetry

Ray Greenblatt has lived in New England, the West Indies, and along the Eastern Shore. He has written short stories, essays, and poetry which have been published across the U.S. in periodicals as diverse as America, English Journal, and Joseph Conrad Today.

He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Anthony Byrne Prize. He was also the editor of the magazine General Eclectic. A teacher for many years Ray Greenblatt has taught writing in the Philadelphia Writers Conference as well as spoken at the John Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California.

PASSING THROUGH TOULON

The colors were so brilliant:
pink and pale blue storefronts,
shutters, signs, green awnings,
Chinese red kiosks
yolk-yellow fences.
          And the people carried around with them
          these same brilliances:
          golden straw hats
          purple suits
          Scots-orange hair
          make-up mauves and azures.
                    Our heads grew tired turning . . .
                    our necks needed professional massage,
                    as we neared the outskirts
                    to find another bland autoroute
                    headed north,
                    but our minds were filled with rainbows
                    for hours after . . .

RAISING THE STATUE OFF PIRAEUS

And as she rose snarled in
the nets of fishermen,
she was found naked
her colored clothes washed from
her body aeons ago;

discovering her limbs intact
she gasped new air
light, salty, bubbling,
blinked in the blinding
non-aquamarine sun;

but now in the semi-dark
safety of the museum,
she has further time
to muse upon rebirth
and how it has changed her.

JERUSALEM: FROM THE OLD QUARTER

I loved to study in the small room
with skylight for warmth.
Then following corridors
outside to gathered shops
of leather, clay, and brass.
Past ancient walls into the square
where feathered words flew.

Now everything is haze
and rocks hold no alphabet,
no sound but winds through scrub.
Until phylacteries
of burning moon in descent
and burning sun in ascension
press my soul for enlightenment.

For other contributions by Ray Greenblatt, please follow the links below: