I am pouring the water into the bowl,
up to the brim
and cutting the base of the flower stems,
I smell the fresh green, this renewed
breath of earth.
I want them to stand
straight and tight, a rich knot
in their lilacs, yellows and whites
and like a silent joy the fist
of a blood-red rose saying-
here I am, to the light-grey granite.
On leaving, I catch myself once more
saying goodbye- to a name
and feeling accomplished.
Like the accomplished, rich and severe
wind in the cypresses.
I know, deep down, the illusion of being.
Or, simply afraid, I pretend to know it.
I want to be aware that
I am no more here than they are,
there under the granite.
But I still feel so much here.
Still. A flicker of awareness
glad to have greeted
a name in a new thicket of flowers.
Davide is an Italian teacher of English. He has been writing exclusively in English since 1993. His poems have
appeared in magazines since 1999. His poetry collection Re-emerging was published by www.gattopublishing.com
in 2006.
| The piece
languished four years in this case. I submit some poems very soon, I
wait for others. I try to follow a feeling about submitting them, a
feeling I can't quite describe. The inspiration for the vast majority
of the poems comes from real life, in this case I got a
persisting image in my mind, of myself walking by the graves of some of
my dear departed in San Michele, Venice cemetery, where they are
buried. I visit the place regularly every three-four months. I have changed endings but not in this case. Endings come by themselves produced by the body of the poem, almost completely naturally, and sound as if they are really meant to stay. If they are uncertain or tentative in most cases the whole poem wilts and must be re-felt and rewritten. |
