The Present Tense of the World Quotes

“I move towards the place that is you
and what had been happens

a star dances on my forehead’s sky
the bird within us is reborn from the soul’s shore
your word is yours mine is my word

you return to the place that I am
and the poem continues to write itself”
― Amina Saïd, The Present Tense of the World: Poems 2000-2009

“but in an excess of night with hidden doorways
I create you in your own image caress your waters

we watch ourselves draw apart
and the dream shadows a never-indifferent night
then reemerges in all its weight of aerial pain

I keep you multiple
in the crucible of fecund breath
in the pollen-gathering corollas of silence
at the heart of words made of shattered dawns
brought back to life in a prodigal day’s shivering

more simply I’m taking a rest from your dream
with suns in my eyes
it’s that way with certain dreams
as with great happiness or great sorrow

for your silence when there is no voice
for the dream that you bear in your night

the flame must be fed the lamp protected”
― Amina Saïd, The Present Tense of the World: Poems 2000-2009