Personal geometry

We have recently passed the first anniversary of the death (6 May 2010) of Elena Shvarts, one of Russia's finest contemporary poets. Here is her "Poetica -- More Geometrico" (translated into English by Thomas Epstein).

     Poetica -- More Geometrico     by Elena Shvarts

     Parallel lines converged.
     In the corner where they crossed the shelter blushed.
     The soul set off like train lights, leading
     In every direction -- but they converged,
     And all my souls suddenly collided
     Smashed against a sturdy dark
     The mind could no longer comprehend.

     Lost in the woods, drowned in oceans
     O my soul, you called up from a pit
     But the poems, like dogs, flew headlong in mad sleights,
     Parallel tropes converged.

     They met from where they set out --
     In this obtuse angle,
     Lancing subcutaneous life.
     Now I live at their convergence --
     A lump of coal sputters in each letter.

     But the mind was given dark clothes
     Against the stitched, living dark  --
     The wind blows too hard
     In this blessèd corner of words.

I have found this poem in the fine collection Crossing the Centuries;  The New Generation in Russian Poetry (Talisman House, 2000).