by Nicholas Johnson
On the beach they approach me,
the stone angels, mouths a dark
choir of ooo’s, mouthing words
with their blank Byzantine faces
so they sound like waves
sucked back to the spellbound sea.
Circling, they bow their heads
low, halos of stone dipping.
Their legend stings with reproach
and disintegration, Grecian
faces almost benign.
Their stone sleeves billow out
as they hold out the laws,
the laws almost lost in the scrolls
of their robes. The angels of stone
encircle me, their greeting
eroding my will: “Welcome,” they say,
“to these blue hours beyond
belief, to the petrified morning.”
Originally published in Chance of a Ghost: An Anthology of Contemporary Ghost Poems, edited by Gloria Vando
and Philip Miller, Helicon Nine Editions, 2005, p.209.
Nicholas Johnson (1944-2019) and Maureen Holm (1951-2005) were the co-founders of BigCityLit.
Maureen Holm was a poet, novelist, editor, literary translator, arts lawyer, and senior essayist and articles editor for Big City Lit. She lived in Manhattan. Holm received her B.A. degree in German Literature & Philosophy, J.D. in 1981, an LL.M in 1991. She served as translator/editor for UNIDO, IIASA, Simmering Graz Pauker A.G., Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna). She translated the German Bankruptcy Code for the OECD, and was an interpreter for depositions, hearings, and trials. Her commercial transactional and litigation practice focused on European licensors and manufacturers. She was a founder and co-producer of Lyric Recovery Festival at Carnegie Hall (a biannual of poetry-music).
Nicholas Johnson was the editor of BigCityLit. His chapbook, Degrees of Freedom, is available from Bright Hill Press. We encourage you to read our 20th Anniversary Issue, which is dedicated to Nicholas’ memory.