"Under My Eyelids", verses by award-winning poet Maria Grech Ganado

UNDER THE HAT ...

...holding a feather ready in her hand

to write down all she sees

a curious girl is standing

in front of two shut doors

she knows that to choose one

she'd have to split her heart

she'd like to keep it whole

and small as she's herself

she shuts her eyes and trusts

the road she glimpses in them

she shuts her eyes and chooses

the road which she sees there

-- © Maria Grech Ganado

    translated from the Maltese by Maria Grech Ganado

    Appears in the collection Under My Eyelids (Midsea Books, 2014).

Yes, that's my self-portrait "Doors" featuring on Maria Grech Ganado's latest poetry collection titled Under My Eyelids, and the above poem, Under the Hat, is the English translation of the poem Maria wrote to accompany the picture.

Maria is an award-winning poet from Malta and I was delighted when she chose "Doors" as the cover for her latest collection. Maria writes both in Maltese and English, and her poems have been translated in 11 other languages. She received the Service to the Republic award in 2000 and has published four poetry collections in Maltese, and two in English, winning the National Book Prize in 2002 and in 2005. 

Maria and I have been chatting about words and images and we found an incredible connection. I really hope Maria can write more poems to go along my images so I can show off her talent at my next solo exhibit. In the meantime, I leave you with two more poems Maria wrote: Peter Pan, from an earlier collection titled Ribcage, and Wonderland, from Under My Eyelids. All poems posted here with Maria's permission.

                   

"Breaking Free" © EEG

                                  

PETER PAN

(11th December 1998)

By the time you flew into the story, 

I'd been Wendy for several years.  

I'd tried the window countless times before, 

flapped fiercely, fallen, felt my bruises 

and made my wry determined way back up the stairs.

Older, I spent the days embroidering stars on cushions, 

nights trying to count them in the skies.  

I never gave up hope.  But by the time 

you flew into the story, I had thought up

a new, secure, investing kind of game.

I'd invent shapes like creatures I'd imagined, 

blow words, ideas into them -  a yen for texture, 

warp and woof, and mattresses of paper under which

I'd hide the pea.  And then I'd sew my soul on 

like a shadow and try to help them fly.

Before I'd make it to the window 

the shadow would drop off.  

Why can't it drop off you?  

I've shoved and pulled.  Has practice made

my stitching that  much firmer?  I've tried 

to dive into your mind so fast I'd make it 

to your feet.  But still the stitches hold

and, what's more, you've found the pea, 

digested it!  I can't live with shut windows.  

If you should fly away, shadow and all, 

should I give up and lose my need of flight? 

grow old on pea-less mattresses? and die respectably

as mature mortals do?  Or should I risk another fall,

try one more time - follow my soul - not you?

-- © Maria Grech Ganado

    Appears in the collection Ribcage

"Down the Rabbit Hole" © EEG

WONDERLAND
She answered
Rouse me from this sleep
much longer than a hundred years

Giddy, I took a step backward
where I'd dreamt of the white rabbit
at that instant when we'd fallen
into a black hole (I'd thought)
because I was dazzled

gather the night around you
like an embrace--
stop and reflect

the star which you'e been chasing
for two thousand years
is obviously a quasar after all

I told her "No, I never lost my heart, you know.
All I did was swallow it down like water
when you confused me through the years.
How strange, it was always here in my breast.

Now that I've found it once more, come
kiss me and get up--it's late.
The garden waits."

-- © Maria Grech Ganado

    translated from the Maltese by Maria Grech Ganado

    Appears in the collection Under My Eyelids