Yesterday poetry was celebrated around the world -- the Guardian reported the event with mention of Cafés around the world that offered a cup of coffee in exchange for a poem. The occasion caused me to turn to one of my favorite international collections, The Horse Has Six Legs (Graywolf, 2010) -- an anthology of Serbian poetry translated and edited by poet Charles Simic. On 29 April 2011 I posted "Forgetful Number" by Yugoslav poet Vasko Popa (1922-1991) -- and here is another of Popa's poems. This one is part of a cycle of poems about "the little box" and it involves recursion.
Last News about the Little Box by Vasko Popa
The little box that contains the world
Fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box.
The little box of the little box
Also fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box
and so it went on forever
The world from the little box
Ought to be inside
The last offspring of the little box
But not one of the little boxes
Inside the little box in love with herself
Is the last one
Let's see you find the world now
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