“Back to the Village,” by Reginald Gibbons

Poetry faculty member Reginald Gibbons was recently featured by Poetry Daily. Read an excerpt of “Back to the Village,” Gibbons’ translation of a 1922 poem by César Vallejo, below:

Back to the Village

It’s dark when we arrive at the doorway
where I spoke my long-ago goodbye
as the rooster was singing one of his epics.
The door’s locked. I call out
and there’s no answer.

The stone bench beside the door
where Mamá brought my big brother
into this bright world so he would saddle
backs for me. But I would later ride them bare,
rambling through narrow streets and out
beyond—village boy that I was.
This very bench of stone is where I left
my hard childhood to yellow in the sun.
And this doorway framed by grief?

Read the rest of this poem here: https://poems.com/poem/back-to-the-village/