De Amerikaanse dichter, uitgever en kunsthandelaar Stanley Moss werd geboren in Woodhaven, New York op 21 juni 1925. Hij werd opgeleid aan het Trinity College en Yale University. Zijn eerste dichtbundel “The Wrong Angel” verscheen in 1966. Hij is de auteur van vijf andere dichtbundels: “The Skull of Adam” (1979), “The Intelligence of Clouds” (1989), “Asleep in the Garden” (1997), “A History of Color’ (2003), “New & Selected Poems 2006” en “God Breaketh Not All Men’s Hearts Alike: New & Later Collected Poems” (2011). In 1977 richtte Moss Sheep Meadow Press op, een non-profit uitgeverij die poëzie en belles-lettres publiceert, met een speciale focus op internationale dichters in vertaling. Sheep Meadow Press heeft het werk van Yehuda Amichai, Peter Cole en vele andere beroemde dichters gepubliceerd. Moss verdient zijn brood als een privé-kunsthandelaar, grotendeels in Spaanse en Italiaanse oude meesters. Hij woont in Riverdale en Clinton Corners, New York.

Allegory of Evil in Italy

The Visconti put you on their flag: a snake
devouring a child, or are you throwing up a man
feet first? Some snakes hunt frogs, some freedom of will.
There’s good in you: a man can count years on your skin.
Generously, you mother and father a stolen boy,
to the chosen you offer your cake of figs.
A goiter on my neck, you lick my ear with lies,
yet I must listen, smile and kiss your cheek
or you may swallow the child completely. In Milan
there is a triptych, the throned Virgin in glory,
placed on the marble below, a dead naked man
and a giant dead frog of human scale on its back.
There’s hope! My eyes look into the top of my head
at the wreath of snakes that sometimes crowns me.

You and I

You are Jehovah, and I am a wanderer.
Who should have mercy on a wanderer
if not Jehovah? You create and I decay.
Who should have mercy on the decayed
if not the creator? You are the Judge
and I the guilty Who should have mercy
on the guilty if not the Judge? You are All
and I am a particle. Who should have mercy
on a particle if not the All?
You are the Living One and I am dead.
Who should have mercy on the dead if not
the Living One? You are the Painter and Potter
and I am clay. Who should have mercy on clay
if not the Painter and Potter? You are the Fire
and I am straw Who should have mercy on straw
if not the Fire? You are the Listener
and I am the reader. Who should have mercy
on the reader if not the Listener? You
are the Beginning and I am what follows.
Who should have mercy on what follows
if not the Beginning? You are the End and I am
what follows. Who should have mercy
on what follows if not the End?

 
Stanley Moss (Woodhaven, 21 juni 1925)