[Aaron Poochigian]

I have been devouring "The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry." As expected, the poets' bios are as depressing as their poems. Here is an amazing poem by Nikolay Gumilyov (executed by the Bolsheviks at age 36):

The Sixth Sense

Good is the wine that is in love with us,
and good is bread, our generous friend;
and good the woman who brings us torment
yet yields her sweetness to us in the end.

But what are we to do with sunset fires?
With joys that can't be eaten, drunk or kissed?
And what are we to do with deathless verse?
We stand and watch--as mysteries slip past.

Just as some boy too young to know of love
will leave his play to gaze, his heart on fire,
at maidens swimming in a lake, and gaze
and gaze, tormented by obscure desire;

or as within the gloom of ancient jungle
some earthbound beast once slithered from its lair
with wing buds on its back, still tightly closed,
and let out cries of impotent despair;

so year on year--how long, Lord, must we wait?--
beneath the surgeon's knife of art and nature,
our flesh is wasted and our spirit howls
as one more sense moves slowly to creation.