'Paradise? Kind of a library'

 

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges

 

Born in Argentina in August of 1899, Borges has been called one of the 20^th Century’s most important writers and perhaps the most important figure in Spanish-language literature since Cervantes. He wrote his first poems as a boy, published his first book of poems at age 23, and continued writing poetry right up to his death in 1986.   

 

For Saturday's Poem, here is Borges’

 

The Forging

 

Like the blind man whose hands are precursors
that push aside walls and glimpse heavens
slowly, flustered, I feel
in the crack of night
the verses that are to come.
I must burn the abominable darkness
in their limpid bonfire:
the purple of words
on the flagellated shoulder of time.
I must enclose the tears of evening
in the hard diamond of the poem.
No matter if the soul
walks naked and lonely as the wind
if the universe of a glorious kiss
still embraces my life.
The night is good fertile ground
for a sower of verses.