Poetry Showcase: David Dephy (March 2023)

WE WERE WINGS

Memories flow around our bodies
from the heart of the rain this morning,
we are empty. Sorrow pulses through 
memories, swallows up our noisy minds. 
We are absorbed by water,
and can feel the sounds of ocean, 
as something familiar is dawning 
deep within us every morning, 
then it disappears again. Memories of us 
have the roots right in the air.
We were the wings for each other, 
but stillness breaks before dawn, 
in the name of all that’s hailed, 
and face it all— 
the past remains unclaimed, 
driven forth by faith.

GOODBYE ALL THE LEAVES

“Walk on,” I said to myself 
and turned around, when the wind blows, 
the shadows change.
“Walk on,” I said and continued 
the path, we know the rules— 
the light’s gate trough the wall of darkness. 
So, goodbye all the leaves under the turquoise sky, 
goodbye all the leaves above the emerald land. 
I walk with silence in my heart 
there is no room for words anymore, 
what’s done is done. 
Goodbye.

SPIRIT OF SILENCE

Language, the spirit of silence. 
Each word, the heart of silence.
Without hearts we are sightless,
with fingers searching for rays. 

I was circled by the cutlery of 
emptiness, but I felt your breath 
one day and realized my existence. 
Essence emerged from emptiness,

all the mysteries of our century
and all the answers flew with us.
Silence. Language of understanding. 
Meanings, only. No words. 

THE COLD BREEZE OF BAY SHORE


Long ago, the wind knew my plans. I asked myself: 
“If the wind knows our plans who can defeat the wind?” 
Long ago, I knew the answer. Silence.

I always knew that we all are going to the garden, 
and there was a street, empty, tiny, calm street, 
with the tiny wall, at its very end, and a garden 

beyond that wall. Ruins, as precious dust of hope, 
and wishes. Long ago, in noisy night I was attacked. 
I don’t remember those faces, voices, I left for dead. 

All I remember is my own breath, 
strangely telling the truth— meaning of loneliness, 
as if that garden beyond the wall 

was the sanctuary of my own heart, always alive, 
always beautiful from the very beginning of time.
I lived to revenge myself against my enemies, 

not for what they were – for what I was, 
from the end of childhood, friendship, war, 
from the beginning of understanding— 

when we all were created as a crown of the world, 
I thought the loneliness, and even that pain meant 
we were not loved, but standing on the other side 

of alone, I felt the cold breeze of bay shore, 
and took a deep breath, I heard the seagulls up above, 
“it’s all over now,” I realized, and it meant we loved


Bio: David Dephy (he/him) (pronounced as “DAY-vid DE-fee”), is an American award-winning poet and novelist. The founder of Poetry Orchestra, a 2023 Pushcart Prize nominee for Brownstone Poets, an author of full-length poetry collection Eastern Star (Adelaide Books, NYC, 2020), and A Double Meaning, also a full-length poetry collection with co-author Joshua Corwin, (Adelaide Books, NYC, 2022).  His poem, “A Senses of Purpose,” is going to the moon in 2024 by The Lunar Codex, NASA, Space X, and Poetry on Brick Street. He is named as Literature Luminary by Bowery Poetry, Stellar Poet by Voices of Poetry, Incomparable Poet by Statorec, Brilliant Grace by Headline Poetry & Press and Extremely Unique Poetic Voice by Cultural Daily. He lives and works in New York City.







Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with David Dephy from the Poetry Orchestra

with David Dephy:

Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?

David: I started writing poetry and prose at the age of 21, I earned my undergraduate degree MFA from the Faculty of Architecture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Georgia, I was making a Video Art as well, but I started writing in English, after 8 months of my arrival in the US, in 2017. Thanks to AFI (Artistic Freedom Initiative in New York City) they helped me with my documents and with my case.

In all honesty I was influenced by the people like Jack London, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, but my first love always was Edgar Allan Poe, with these two gentlemen and seers of vision: William Blake and Kahlil Gibran.

Q2: Who are your biggest influences today?

David: Oh, I like reading the works of Wayne Miller, Stephen Frech, Joshua Corwin, Aaron Fisher, Gloria Monaghan, Luise Gluke, but I am on my way, I have my style, my voice, and I cannot say who is my biggest influence today, everyone and no one at the same time. Everything is open widely and wildly today, writing poetry is spiritual adventure with joy, for me.

Q3: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing/art? Have any travels away from home influenced work/describe?

David: I was born and grown up in country of Georgia, I am a trilingual poet, I believe that my homeland is where my heart is and this understanding of space and time and ruts and tradition is deeper than any ideas of identity.

I feel that Western civilization and Eastern civilization are the one joint spiritual imprint on the body of humanity itself. Yes, I travel a lot in Europe and in the USA, and I found my home here in America. I am absolutely not rhyming with the political situation in Georgia, today. I have deep sense of responsibility.

Q4: What do you consider the most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far?

David: Killing question, to be honest, deadly question for any poet. My latest work of course! Look, I write because I like it and have a story to tell. I like the process and results. I have a message of hope and comfort. I have an idea.

I think that a human being gets strength from the truth and transfers that strength to others and fills them with comfort and allows them to carry on and hold on during everyday struggles. This truth for me is poetry and it has no boundaries. I feel silence in me, first and when I feel it, I know in that very second, that time is near, something is going on. I called this process architecture of feelings, sounds and visions.

Q5: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a poet/writer/artist?

David: I painted a portrait once, back in 80’s when I was 21 yo and I wrote on it “let me tell you a story why I painted you so beautifully” and I realized that I am a poet, I have a story to tell, and started writing. I have heard a call. I followed my own self.

Q6: Favorite activities to relax?

David: I do not know what is this. I am working and relaxing at the same time, work is so relaxing and relax is work, axis of meditative observation.

I am an author of Eastern Star full-length poetry book written directly in English language and published by Adelaide Book in New York City in October 2020, also, 15 collections of poetry, written in Georgian language, 8 novels and three audio albums of poetry with orchestra and electronic bands.

Eastern Star: Poems by David Dephy

As a writer I realize that much is demanded from me, but not much is forgiven to me… That if I figure it out by what means I want to distinguish myself, then I will understand who and what I am in reality… And, that if in our inner world and in this multi-language dictionary of mankind survive the following words such as Freedom, Responsibility, Comfort, then the world will also survive. For me this is the mission of literature and of mine as a poet’s and novelist’s justification for existence.

Q7: Any recent or forthcoming projects coming up that you’d like to promote?

David: My second full-length book of poetry Lilac Shadow of a Tree is forthcoming by MadHat Press this year in September 2021.

MadHat Press Logo (c)

In this particular and challenging time I am working as a caregiver with the brilliant man Vincent Petrolino who is 104 years old, I am so lucky because this experience of caregiving, especially with the 104 yo old man is a real deal, I mean a real – real deal for any writer in the galaxy, because you are working with the man who really lived and still lives through the history of the USA and saw and felt everything in his life, and btw this is very spiritual job as well – caregiving in general, you are not only just a helper, but a comfort-giver and guardian, you are making people’s life as a joy and you are learning a lot about a human being, that’s what I am talking about, you are experiencing a real life – not sitting in some fancy bar and crying about life. Gotcha?

And I am making Poetry Orchestra project, this is the video/sound art global poetry project with the musicians and artists such as Saphileaum, Irakli Gabriel and Andrea Meparishvili and the poets across the United States of America, who I admire. I am sure this form of expression is the future of poetry. (See the link down below)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYfKmxGEW47Qo-tgnCIGKEA

Q8: One of your favorite lines from a poem of yours?

David: I have not favorite lines from my or others’ work, if verse is good, it is good as a whole with every word and every line and every smell, and color and every nerve in it, as a whole universe all around and inside us.

I have my favorite poems, books, novels, albums, songs, musicians and architectures, and even slogans. I am a man of word and I feel that poetry is such a sacrifice, it is tangible. It is such an enormous concept, that it cannot be only my personal matter.

Q9: Who has helped you most with writing?

David: Father, Georgian folk songs, American blues, American literature, movies of Peter Greenaway and Billy Wilder and these three absolutely masterpiece rock-albums: Jesus Christ Superstar, Abbey Road and The Dark Side of the Moon.

Ben Okri © 2010 Beowulf Sheehan/PEN American Center

Wolfpack Contributor: David Dephy

3 poems by David Dephy : In the Dark, Reflection Shuddered, Drops are Heralds

IN THE DARK

Who says the hunt has begun?
Thank the Lord I stayed awake.
I thought of freedom running in the dark
with no difference of pits and graves,
when the mist of night was my only ally,
a man cannot be destroyed once and for all.
Now I feel the dawn is due to come,
right from your heart, from other side of alone.
I thought of you, how you took a deep breath
and said my name, how you exhaled the sky
from you with every letter of that name,
showing me the meaning of trust,
justification of my own existence,
there was no distance in the dark
when the fears fell away.

David Dephy
August 31, 2020
New York

REFLECTION SHUDDERED

I woke up to the sound of neigh.
The moon’s reflection shuddered in river.
The night streamed in. Loving life is seeing
with the eyes of another. Understanding life
is feeling with the heart of another.
I remembered how we knew
listening to the sounds at night
and all but the bitter
residue slipped away.

David Dephy
August 29, 2020
New York

DROPS ARE HERALDS

I remember one drop on my palm.
My personal drop, personal gift from above.
Yes, we all have our own personality,
as my drop, unique and distinctive,
always blends with noise and silence of memory—
the homeland of ghosts, and the dusk flutters silently,
and I am still missing you.
Still thirsty, and maybe you are thirsty, too.
Drops are heralds. Imagination is the thirst of a man.
I have enough to drink till my thirst is sated,
but I want to know what’s beyond the night.
Still, I want to feel what’s inside your breath.
Drops, skinned by the wetness of heavens
to quench the thirst of me, came from the depth
of future and gone back dry and parched, as that one,
a messenger of blessed rain, was shaking on my palm,
and silence all around me was empty and dry as hell must be.

David Dephy
April 18, 2021
Florida

Wolfpack Contributor: David Dephy

Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with David Dephy from the Poetry Orchestra

David Dephy — A Georgian/American award-winning poet and novelist. The winner of the Finalist Award in the 2020 Best Book Award National Contest by American Book Fest, the finalist and shortlist winner nominee of the Adelaide Literary Awards for the category of Best Poem, the winner of the Spillwords Poetry Award. His full book-length poetry Eastern Star has been published by Adelaide Books in New York in October 2020. He is named as A Literature Luminary by Bowery Poetry, The Stellar Poet by Voices of Poetry and The Incomparable Poet by Statorec