Fernando Pessoa by David Chorlton for Sheila E. Murphy Fernando Pessoa,
with your many names
and one face,
six voices
and two feet,
how shall we address you?
Fernando, who keeps a suitcase
next to the bed
as a repository for dreams,
whose dreams
do you keep locked away?
Fernando Pessoa,
born under multiple signs,
refractor of celestial light,
whose histories are etched
on the mirror,
whose hat sails through the crowd
with all the aplomb
of a sailboat,
who is waiting for you
when you make an appointment with yourself?
Dear Fernando, friend
to the silent,
who speaks many languages,
who eats by himself,
who travels an imaginary continent
standing for hours
at the typewriter,
you have declared liberty
as too awful a force
for one to bear alone.


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First GRIST On-Line publication, December, 1996. © 1996 David Chorlton