Elena Kras with her mother.

The Amazing Elena Kras

Though completely deaf, Elena Kras speaks and “hears” without sign language. She is a recognized poet, author and journalist in Russian and Ukrainian and self taught in English, a necessity since she and her family moved to the United States 10 years ago.

She now writes both poems and novels in her adopted language.

She courageously sought us out as a vehicle for bringing her to a wider audience. The pleasure is all ours. Here is a new, beautiful and powerful voice in poetry from a woman whose understanding knows no bounds.

O R G A N I S T

If I always sleep

at the time of its calling,

If my heart goes on,

being thrown into the bend,

How would my hands

fall, like night is falling,

At this dead organ,

wishing for the music to end?

 

This is just the sounds

that make my lips thinner,

That dry up my soul,

distorting the Fate’s list…

I will answer for

being an unrepentant sinner,

Who still dares to bother

your hollow echo,

Liszt…

 

I didn’t hear you playing,

I’ve only been a jester,

Every pain is too aching,

this road of yours – too long…

Even if I have found

my ever-undying Esther,

I’m forgetting about

the places where I belong…

 

 

Reprinted with permission of the poet, Elena Kras, 2011.