For Hercules, the thirteenth labor, is allowing the mortal lovers to go back to their separate beds unreconciled, to leave well enough alone, to let their oaths uncouple from their stars, to abandon the strange planets to the idiosyncrasies of their orbits.
To shun the power that Zeus had given, Hercules searches for fortitude along an ordinary shore where all waves reach their breaking point, some staring with demonic eyes while others lap the beach rhapsodically.
Recovering, he asks the heavens for extra strength, not sleight of hand or muscles he’d flexed before cleaning or slaughtering or filching the golden apples of the nymphs. He prays for a mind that would leave the lovers alone with their distrust.
But that is another fantasy of self-possession, of holding himself in check, letting love be love; love refused, or breathing lightly or unloved like unpicked apples. The lovers’ slurs, staccato, strike the night and he is certain that turning away is his one impossible labor.
Sebastián Hasani Páramo has joined Dallas-based publisher Deep Vellum as poetry editor. “Some of the books that we’re interested in acquiring for Deep Vellum will be aiming to redefine poetry and will be able to comment on poetry in really exciting ways....The fact that this will be happening in Dallas makes it even more exciting to me.”
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
"This element of Kurdish delights me: to crack a word open and peer inside it, to find a world within a word, a world where the abstract is embodied. The Kurdish language calls the body into every conversation, fashioning idea from body. There is no hiding the body, not even to protect it."
