Junction Reads with Edith Blais

Описание: What an incredible human being!

Edith Blais joined us and shared her beautiful poetry. I have included the English version below for you.

The Weight of Sand is the story of her experience being held captive for 450 in the Sahara desert between 2018 and 2020. The book includes some of the poetry she wrote on scraps of paper, bits of cardboard and which she managed to take with her when she escaped in the middle of the night.


First Poem: The Edge of the World

Whoever said the earth was round
Didn't see this edge, my feet
Swinging out into space—I found
the brink, where world and nothing meet.

I want to rest but wait, restless.
Time stretches and doubles back
As I sit here—where the wind ceases,
Where blue dwindles into black.

The void lifts up to graze my limbs
And forever burrows in my palm:
This is where the sun begins
To birth its colours, shining on

I wait and watch a tumbling brook
Falling and falling into the abyss,
But the world shines back, and already it looks
Like a mirror's infinite kiss.

Gravity holds me by a crystal thread,
My own hue runs a deep blue steel.
I watch and wait, I turn to lead.
The unknown, the void is at my heels.



Second Poem: For Whom The Dinner Bell Tolls

Dearest guests, come sit at our feet
And feast on our delicacies.
Here at the inn of the Hobbling Sheep
Bland and insipid is our specialty!

Do try the rice on a layer of pasta,
Our signature noodles in sand velouté.
We'll spoil you—come on, trust us,
Come sit at our table, what do you say...

The all-you-can-eat of the desert awaits,
Course upon course of grit in your teeth.
It gets everywhere, not just on your plate.
Think – oh, just think of the dunes you will eat.

Here you will dine in the utmost repose;
Our sommeliers are armed to the teeth.
Sometimes they shoot (you know how it goes),
But please let us show you your seat.


Third Poem: The Ghost Ship

Bells echoed through the streets,
The muffled toll of fate.
It was time to go aboard and meet
My shadow standing there in wait.

I walked onto the ghost ship
In the queue of the damned,
My crime held softly on my lips:
To slaughter with the lambs.

They cast off the moorings
And wind caught in tattered sails.
In the gloom the ship was fading,
Skirting land where memory fails.

I saw my shadow staring at me,
Searching for hope in my soul.
I held its hand in mine, trembling at the sea—
How vast it must be, how cold

For a while silence walked beside
Though I've wished it would keep its distance.
I had to believe it wanted us to survive;
I never asked for its presence.

In the end I think the ship vanished...
I could see we were going nowhere,
Faces drifting in the mist.
And my shadow left me there.


Fourth Poem:: Thunderstruck

Light flashed through an ebony door,
Its fingers like the stormy glare.
Pure rain flowed like veins, their core
A sky wild with flare.

In my eyes the light gleamed electric,
Bright as a thousand-watt gleam.
Against the darkness it pushed and kicked.
Such an explosion of power I'd never seen.

On forgotten land the lightning glowed
And untamed visions pinned me down.
They crawled around me like shadows
Fallen, dragging the Knights ragged gown.

A bolt shot through my belly,
The lightning struck in my eyes
And coursed through my body,
Trapping me in strobing time.

Then lightning ignited under my skin,
Found its way through my bristling hair.
It stoked my heart unbeating,
Chasing shivers everywhere.