The Poetry Stash: 15April2024

West and East by Adonis

Today’s poem is “West and East” by Adonis from the collection Adonis, selected poems translated by Khaled Mattawa. The book is available for purchase here.

West and East by Adonis

Everything stretches in history’s tunnel.
Everything decorated is mined,
carrying its oily, poisoned child
sung to in a poisonous trade.
It was East, like a child asking,
	pleading
and West was his flawless elder.

I turn this map around,
for the world is all burned up:
East and West, a heap
of ash gathered
in the self-same grave.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “Everything stretches…”
2.	Begin with “the world is…”
3.	Draft a poem about war.
4.	Draft an allegory. To learn more about allegory, click here.

5. Photo by Leah Newhouse via pexels.com. Use the image as a writing prompt.

Thanks for reading PoetryStash Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the Poetry Stash community.