Portugal, by the way, resurfaced

  I've always wondered

  how to make sense of

  the Azores with any-

  thing less than some

  days among the ruins

  of Evora.

  Without history, the

  traveler must fumble

  in the dark, and the

  sonorities of humane

  practices fall flat.

   I think this is

   the most beauti-

   ful language my

   hearing can as-

   pire to absorb,
   dissolving even
   softer than Ver-
   laine's this na-
   tive, restless
   undertone.

Kevin Flamme
  Hermès, 2014