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Pasternak’s Legacy

by B. Z. Niditch


A poet of a playful nature,
Pasternak discovers in his verse
the mystery of musical stars.
He touches the unknown
mounted above us,
and in our memory
his images become vivid.

At university in Russia
and Germany
he explored human
and space velocities,
using verbal pyrotechnics.

Wishing as a youth to visit
the high realms
and planets above
our earthly lives
and to outline in language
the fragments of our existence,
he perceived that science
offers us a bird’s eye view
of landings and sound systems.

He sees icy shafts of light
beaming down
on the horizon as well:
as a musician, composer
and student of Scriabin,
he studied Kant’s philosophy
in Marburg,
And Dr. Cohen once patted him on the back
after a gentleman’s argument.

He met with Mayakovsky,
who was always his hero,
and visited the luminous canals
of Venice, his favorite city,

He won the Nobel Prize.
What iconic voyages he explored:
revolution, civil war, occupation, peace.
What a visionary eternally present.


Copyright © 2014 by B. Z. Niditch

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