AROUND A WORD

(TIME)

…as time flies fast – unless GOD cuts its wings.

But then time seems to simply start to run

out of space. Time sometimes only brings

slow-motion sighing from the setting sun.

Yes, time can heal; but time can also kill

like a wind blowing out candles. When a rain-

storm starts, you feel all you can feel until

you come to find out if it is in vain…

…as time flies fast – unless GOD cuts its wings. But then time seems to simply start to run out of space. Time sometimes only brings slow-motion sighing from the setting sun. Yes, time can heal; but time can also kill like a wind blowing out candles. When a rainstorm starts, you feel all you can feel until you come to find out if it is in vain…

January 2004

(LEAF IN THE WIND)

…the sun sets and the time

pauses in a pantomime

like an old black and white

photograph of the night

in the window. You dream

of snow that tastes like cream.

In the light of a moon-

shaped plate, a silver spoon

mixes sugar and salt

inside your restless soul.

Each time you lose control

over the steering wheel

of your life, you may feel

as helpless as a torn leaf

in the wind. For a brief

moment, your memory

lane turns into a free-

way of living without regret

or fear. Inside your head,…

…the sun sets and the time pauses in a pantomime like an old black and white photograph of the night in the window. You dream of snow that tastes like cream. In the light of a moon-shaped plate, a silver spoon mixes sugar and salt inside your restless soul. Each time you lose control over the steering wheel of your life, you may feel as helpless as a torn leaf in the wind. For a brief moment, your memory lane turns into a freeway of living without regret or fear. Inside your head,…

October 2010

(IN THE AFTERGLOW)

…also known as the sun.

This day is married to

that night. Does anyone

think that it isn’t true?

Some words seem not to mean

anything. Others – even

less. You look at their lean

letters while the evening

skies are starting to grow

dark as the easiest thing

to sow in the afterglow

of the day’s wedding ring…

…also known as the sun. This day is married to that night. Does anyone think that it isn’t true? Some words seem not to mean anything. Others – even less. You look at their lean letters while the evening skies are starting to grow dark as the easiest thing to sow in the afterglow of the day’s wedding ring…

July 2018

(AROUND A WORD)

…in the Beginning when

there wasn’t a single man.

GOD created the World.

So, every single word

that may be found in

It can also be seen

as a word that has got

to be coming from GOD.

Whenever a word is found,

it is bound to be around

a word and, of course,

the Word that was…

…in the Beginning when there wasn’t a single man. GOD created the World. So, every single word that may be found in It can also be seen as a word that has got to be coming from GOD. Whenever a word is found, it is bound to be around a word and, of course, the Word that was…

February 2021

Rick K. Raut was born in the USSR in the most Orwellian year of them all. Having dabbled in poetry at high school, he took it seriously as a second-year philosophy student at EHU in Minsk, Belarus. Not long before transferring to Saint Petersburg State University to study literature, he started writing daily in accordance with his personal motto “a poem a day” (one day in English, one day in Russian), which isn’t too difficult to do if one is obliged to obey the inner dictates of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. While he worked as a translator and a tutor of English as a foreign language, poems kept piling up without being published anywhere, except for some of them as birthday presents on the social pages of friends. His fear of rejection combined with both laziness and simply not having enough free time to edit the amassed manuscripts was probably the reason for it until 2020. By then, as a result of a psychological trauma, the disorder became much more acute and, along with other health problems, forced the author to question the purpose of his existence. Maybe the main thing that made him carry on was his wish to complete the collection.