Category: Poetry
Another Daybreak without You…with You
This painting – already published – was meant for the poetry that I was still writing.
I go to bed and it’s another night without you
I wake up and it’s another daybreak without you
Our cats hang around and stare at me
perching over the furnitures and the sink.
Outside the window, through the foggy and dusty glass
the thyme smiles and the basil greets too.
Tiredly I make some coffee,
there’s plenty of coffee in our pot now
and I don’t have to fill it up so often
not like we had to do before,
‘cause it’s another breakfast without you.
I sit, within a sunbeam in the kitchen
and it’s another sunny morning without you.
I wander through my day’s hours
working in all the empty rooms still filled of you.
But it’s just another daybreak without you.
I long to sit and talk with you
hanging lazily out on the balcony
and holding hands in the sunny afternoon.
But the sun rays miss you
and the weak breeze can’t caress your face.
I still walk sometimes downtown,
over the narrow streets
like when I walked with you
or in the park, like we used to.
But now the streets are lonely
and the park is misty too.
I know I shouldn’t let myself be down
‘cause if I were where you are now
and you were where I’m still here
I wouldn’t like you to be down or suffer
for not having me around.
I’d like to drive you to the autumn sea,
lay down with you on the sunset’s shining sand
and lightly touch your briny lips,
but now I can only linger in my lonely thoughts
for all the things you would have loved to do
and I hoped too, I could have done again with you.
Will there be other sad daybreaks without you?
Other downcast days and lonely nights without you?
There may be still many sad daybreaks
and lonely nights for me ahead
but none of them will ever be without you
and your beautiful smile I’ll always have and see
shining around and all inside of me.
Dedicated to the one I love, Margaret Mary Healy, September 2017
Al PerSempre Amore
LA PAROLA “PERSEMPRE” SPEZZATA
Quando due mani si uniscono in una stretta PerSempre
cosa accade se improvvisamente il duro destino spezza la parola PerSempre
e la mano di un amante deve lasciar l’altra andare via
svanire in uno sconosciuto mondo di PerSempre amore?
Quanti altri PerSempre possono entrare in una sola vita
quando la mano che ha perso la prima presa
non si rassegna a perdere il tocco dell’amore PerSempre
ma continua PerSempre a stringere la presa
anche se un’altra mano stringente
appare improvvisamente dal nulla
anelando una nuova stretta di un PerSempre amore?
Forse i due PerSempre continueranno a tenere il tocco dell’amore
in una unica PerSempre stretta ?
La mia mano, amore mio, ancora stringe lo spazio vuoto
dove la tua mano stringeva la mia sperando
che tu possa ancora sentire la mia stretta di amore
per un PerSempre tempo.
For Love Ever
THE FOREVER BROKEN WORD
When two hands come to join each other in one forever hold
what if the harsh fate suddenly breaks the forever word in two
and one lover’s hand has to let go the other one
vanishing into the unknown forever world of love?
And how many other forevers
can then befit into just one life
without letting go the hold on the first one
when the hand that has lost the previous grasp
won’t resign to lose the touch of love forever
but keeping forever to hold on it
even if another forever holding hand
arises just from nowhere
yearning a new touch of a forever love?
Perhaps the two forevers will keep the touch of love
in just one single forever hold?
My hand my love, still holds the empty space
where your hand was holding mine
hoping that you can still feel the loving touch
for a forever time.
ennio forina – September 2017
Ode alle Donne
Una donna è una tempesta
Una donna è il sole splendente
Una donna è una poesia
Una donna è una rima
Una donna è una canzone
Una donna è una nenia
Una donna è un fiume
Una donna è una prateria
Una donna è una foresta
Una donna è un fiore
Una donna è un albero
Una donna è una montagna
Una donna è lo spazio
Una donna è un rifugio
Una donna è un nido
Una donna è una sfida
Una donna è una culla
Una donna è un prato
Una donna è un ruscello
Una donna è una lacrima
Una donna è un sorriso
Una donna è un riso
Una donna è un pianto
Una donna è un grido
Una donna è un sussurro
Una donna è la pioggia
Una donna è il vento
Una donna è una brezza
Una donna è uno stagno
Una donna è un lago
Una donna è una goccia
che spegne la sete.
E una donna è l’oceano
nel quale volentieri affondi
Una donna è qualsiasi cosa che è
e che sarà sempre.
Una donna non è una preda
Una donna non è una conquista
Una donna non è un dono
Una donna è l’orizzonte
dove tu vorresti essere.
ennio forina
Ode to the Women
A woman is a storm
A woman is sunshine
A woman is a poetry
A woman is a rhyme
A woman is a song
A woman is a lullaby
A woman is a river
A woman is a prairie
A woman is a forest
A woman is a flower
A woman is a tree
A woman is a mountain
A woman is the space
A woman is a shelter
A woman is a nest
A woman is a challenge
A woman is a cradle
A woman is a meadow
A woman is a stream,
A woman is a tear
A woman is a smile
A woman is a laugh
A woman is a cry
A woman is a whisper
A woman is the rain
A woman is a gust of wind
A woman is a breeze
A woman is a pond
A woman is a lake
A woman is a drop
to quench your thirst away
And a woman is the ocean
In which you gladly sink
A woman is everything there’s is
And that will ever be
A woman is no prey
A woman is no conquest
A woman is no property
A woman is no gift
A woman is the horizon
where you would like to be.
ennio forina
The Broken Words of 9/11 2001
https://www.911memorial.org/registry/ennioforina/sow
WE
We are the lost voices
that nevermore you’ll hear,
we are the fading shades
of those that won’t come back,
shreds of what once were bodies
in ashes and in pieces,
made by the deadly blow
of a sudden hell’s fire.
For what the Hell can count.
We are those who jumped off
the broken glass and walls,
hoping our death came quickly
to end the pain so unbearable
of burns and suffocation,
hoping that some angel
would save us just before
reaching the hard stone
down on the ground.
We didn’t care the world
was watching all astonished.
For us the world was ending.
We are the thoughts,
evaporating in incandescent steel,
reaching the sky somewhere.
We are the words unspoken,
the calls we never did
for those we cared so much.
We died like many died and die,
for blinding violence,
in blasts and clouds of dust.
We died and asking why
were we the chosen ones,
to end like this so abruptly.
We missed all the chances
to reach again our loved ones
and shining days ahead.
We are our lost and hidden pathways
of knowledge unknown forever.
We are the cry of shame
for an unjust death
just like for many living beings
killed with harsh contempt.
It’s hard to feel the pain of others
until you try it on yourself
then, on the eternal moment,
of losing what you are
you suddenly realize:
Those who don’t feel
the death of others
are not alive at all.
But now all words are useless,
’cause all the pain has gone
and what you may learn by this
will go with us away
from all the rest of you,
survivors and lost
in this loveless, crazy, world.
Now, all of you people,
whether you watch crying
or cheer about a victory
you’ll keep wandering blind
and blindly keep destroying
until you’ll want to find
the ousted sense of wisdom.
We are this growing smoke
that’s hiding all the feelings
of what is left of us
while the life’s breathing
now isn’t even a sigh.
Soon we’ll disappear,
without a touch or whisper
from all our loved ones,
but in some way we’ll stay
like diamonds in their souls.
And shades of darkness inside
anyone who only knows to hate.
For those who cheered our death
and exulted about a victory
we may well be some smoke now
just raising in the sky,
scattered by the winds of evil,
but smoke more thick and dark
will stay in all the minds and souls
that are always raised
in all the graves of hate.
Ennio Forina 2001
Until Death…Until Life. Fino a che la Morte…Fino a che la Vita…
March, 11 – 12.00 AM. your plane took off in perfect time, like usual, but it wasn’t going to cross the ocean, Philadelphia wasn’t the destination and your ticket was a – one way ticket –
11 Marzo…il tuo aereo è partito in perfetto orario, come sempre, ma non doveva attraversare l’oceano, Philadelphia non era la destinazione e il tuo biglietto era di sola andata.
Remember how we used to speak to each other? Mixing english and italian altogether, in just one phrase or I would talk to you in english and you’d answer in italian and viceversa, a mess, we were never matching, but it was so good to talk to each other…
Ricordi come ci parlavamo di solito? Mischiavamo inglese e italiano insieme, anche in una piccola frase, oppure io ti parlavo in inglese e tu mi rispondevi in italiano e viceversa, che confusione, non eravamo mai coordinati, ma era così bello parlarsi…
What can I do, my love…how can I be without you, for how long, I wish you could tell me in clear words other than feelings…you said to me, crying… “ then I won’t see you anymore!” and I replied almost yelling “ no! you are not leaving and in any case we’ll always be together no matter what may happen, to you, to me, whenever, wherever! This is what I said to you but in my mind there were other unspoken words which you knew well the same “ … for we ‘ve touched our souls so deeply that they got fused together!”
Che cosa posso fare, amore mio…come posso stare senza te, per quanto tempo, vorrei che potessi dirmelo, con parole chiare oltre che sentimenti…tu mi hai detto, piangendo “poi non potrò vederti più!” e io quasi gridando ti ho risposto, “ no! tu non stai andando via e comunque noi saremo sempre insieme qualunque cosa accada, a te, a me, in qualsiasi momento, in qualsiasi posto!” Questo è quello che ho detto ma nella mia mente vi erano altre parole inespresse che tu conoscevi bene lo stesso…“perché le nostre anime si sono toccate così profondamente da fondersi insieme!”
I’ll live still, I can’t do anything else, nothing unjust, I’ll do my tasks as if you were here, as if you ARE here with me, but I really hope and believe that this time you’ll be at the gate waiting for me when my plane will land, like I used to wait for you, and we’ll get a warm cappuccino at the heaven’s bar in the airport, first time in the morning, before going home…and you’ll make fun of me ’cause I’ve said this in my writing, like in my tale of the “Water”… You only know what I’m talking about…
Vivrò ancora e non posso fare altro, niente che possa essere ingiusto, farò i miei compiti come se tu fossi qui, come se tu SEI qui con me, ma spero e credo davvero che questa volta sarai tu ad aspettarmi al gate, quando il mio aereo sarà atterrato al mattino ,come io ti aspettavo, e prenderemo un cappuccino caldo al “bar del cielo” nell’aeroporto, per prima cosa prima di tornare a casa… e tu mi prenderai in giro perché ho detto questa cosa scrivendo, come nel mio racconto “Acqua”…Tu sola sai di cosa sto parlando…
Yes, before I was the one who waited for you almost always, my love, now it’s your turn to wait, in your different time, but I can’t rush, you know it’s not up to me to decide, it wouldn’t be right and we’ll always wanted to be right and do the right things … “I love you”, were the first two simple words that I translated for you, and you didn’t even know how to say them … and I want to say them out loud again as you may hear them and I’m sure you can hear them… I love you, ti amo…I love you, ti amo… I love you forever Margaret… until a new life will bring us back together… You are inside me and you’ll always be, my endless love. And I’ll say that again, if I hadn’t meet you then by chance, I would have looked for you all over the Universe, and like I promised you when you where leaving, I’ll find you again dear, wherever you are in the Universe…
Sì, prima ero io che aspettavo te quasi sempre, amore mio, adesso sei tu che mi devi aspettare, nel tuo diverso tempo, ma non posso affrettarmi, tu sai che non sta a me decidere, non sarebbe giusto e noi volevamo sempre essere nel giusto e fare le cose giuste…“Ti amo”, erano le due prime semplici parole che ho tradotto per te e tu non sapevi nemmeno come dirle… E le voglio dire ancora a voce alta come se potessi udirle, sono sicuro che puoi sentirle … I love you, ti amo… I love you, ti amo… ti amo Margaret… fino a che una nuova vita ci riunisca … Tu sei dentro di me e lo sarai sempre, mio amore senza fine. E lo ripeto ancora, se non ti avessi conosciuta allora, per caso, ti avrei cercata ovunque nell’Universo e come ti ho promesso quando partivi, io ti ritroverò cara, dovunque tu sia, nell’Universo…
your ennio
I’ve put these pictures of you when you were younger… but there’s no difference for me from then and now, you’ve have always been beautiful inside and out for in your beauty, in your uniquely sweet smile, there always was the eternity of the Universe’s harmony.
Ho messo queste foto quando eri più giovane… ma non c’è differenza per me da allora e adesso, tu sei sempre stata meravigliosa dentro e fuori perché nella tua bellezza, nel tuo sorriso straordinariamente dolce, c’era l’eternità dell’armonia dell’Universo.
Sempre Amanti
L’unico modo di continuare
una relazione nel tempo
è quello di essere sempre se stessi
e sempre diversi,
ma sempre amanti.
ennio forina
Come il Vento
“Il vento scorre fluido e parla in un gesto continuo, fino a placarsi o a diventare tempesta…come la Vita.”
16 luglio 2017
Come il vento scorrendo e accarezzando
le foglie le trasforma in flauti vibranti
anche il gesto di un corpo rivela l’armonia dell’impulso
anche i movimenti sono parole sincere, inascoltati pensieri
trascurate espressioni di sentimenti
che parlano come i sospiri e le grida
e come il vento dialogano anch’essi, sono frasi espresse
che tutto ciò che vive conosce e sa decifrare
come le parole anche i gesti sono ostili ed altri amichevoli
gesti prepotenti ed altri generosi
gesti che feriscono ed altri che carezzano
gesti che rivelano l’essenza di se stessi oppure il nulla
sono rivolti non a qualcuno ma ai tutti sconosciuti
e vogliono dire a voce alta, io vivo per amare comunque
per questo dono ricevuto che mi ha fatto esistere
nonostante il dolore che attraversa a volte
la mia compagna solitudine vera e il deserto degli affetti
o il rammarico di non poter mutare il corso degli eventi
le molte sconfitte senza battaglie
nonostante tutto sono qui per amare
ed è questo che importa, come il vento gentile
che continua a scorrere attraverso le foglie
per farle vibrare dolcemente e non per strapparle
e dalle chiome degli alberi accarezzate il suono si diffonde
a riempire le anime e tornare al buon vento che l’ha generato
poiché la Vita ama solo chi ama la Vita.
ennio forina
In the Depth of your Eyes
We live in the matter that can be touched
and we think that we have a soul that can only be felt,
so we separate the matter from the soul
and wind up believing that they are two different realities.
But all the Universe is pervaded
with the same life and energy of love
from which everything has become,
only more rarefied, out of our perception and diffused all over.
When what we call matter, concentrates in one point
there a sun becomes and where a sun is formed,
planets may happen, made by the same stardust.
There may happen that kind of life we call life.
But it’s the Cosmos itself that is alive
and each planet could be a sun
if it weren't too little to burn in a nuclear fire.
And so this is what you were and are my love,
a drop of love in the immense love of the universe,
that I can still see in the depth of your eyes
like I see, in the night sky through the window,
the stardust that made you exist, and still be.
ennio forina
To Feel or not to Feel
Love’s feelings
are like the dreams,
it’s hard that they become true,
but being able to feel them
it’s in itself a realization.
ennio forina
The Dock Of Time
So far, so close.
Then far away again,
In an endless game of waves,
Kissing the shoreline and recede,
Touches of foam laughing
With the winds and sun.
So free, so forced,
So movable, so still,
So warm, so aloof,
So fickle, so steady,
Unreachable though prisoner
In my field of attraction.
So different, though the same,
Like the restless sea water,
That I watched rolling up
Just a fluctuating skirt,
While I am lingering
on the Dock of Time.
ennio forina 2017
ennio forina
Il Molo Del Tempo
Così lontana, così vicina,
e ancora più lontana,
nel gioco di onde senza fine.
che baciano la spiaggia
e si ritirano in carezze
di schiuma ridente
con i venti ed il sole.
Così libera, così costretta,
così vivace, così calma,
così calda, così distaccata,
irraggiungibile ma prigioniera,
nel mio campo di attrazione.
Così mutevole, così costante
così diversa ma sempre la stessa.
Come l’acqua, instancabile,
che ho visto avvolgersi
nel suo vestito fluttuante.
Mentre restavo sospeso,
sul Molo del Tempo.
ennio forina
The Tales Of The Sleepless Oak
The Acorn Sower
The oak was standing proudly in the middle of a slant uphill, surrounded by a green and shiny carpet of grass just looking like a giant stronghold to keep the mount above from falling down. I had just started to walk inside the narrow boulevard flanking the stream to get a better view of the valley, having sometime to spend by myself before heading back to the dining room at the hotel.
Often, by walking amid trees, I was attracted by the all different shapes and “technologies” that plants use to spread their seeds around. All kinds of marvellous and ingenious methods and different structures and I have always been compelled to pick some of the seeds from places were they could never have the chance to grow and take them to some other easier ground afar so to help them to become a tree.
Trees are friendly, protect us and many other kind of animals from the summer’s heath, whereas they appease the frozen air in winter.
But it was not just for gratitude to that tree, more than thinking that if I could have done something good for another living being with just a little effort on my part, why miss that chance? People pick flowers or branches with gems and put them in vases to garnish a table where soon after they get rotten, children tear off branches for a stick or for no reason or just not caring about, thus ignoring totally that plants too are living beings.
While I was wondering in my mind with similar thoughts, I realised that it was time for me to turn back, so I picked up a couple of more acorns from the ground filling my pockets, having in mind to drop them elsewhere later, but at the moment I was turning back toward the hotel, suddenly I felt driven to look at the leafy crown of the oak, up above my head, wandering what made it to grow so strong and beautiful in its dark dress of leaves. What had been the power, the impulse, the energy that gave it so much life and the ability to throw its seeds around like bullets forerun by a sharp crack and far away from itself.
But it was getting late and actually it was like the weather was rapidly changing, clouds over my head were gathering and clumping on each other, the smell of rain and ozone was spreading in the air and I thought would have been better to head to the hotel soon, before some hard rain would catch me on the way back.
Then, at one point and without even realising it, I started to mentally feel some strange vibes coming from where the oak was. Suddenly, I felt a shiver going trough my back and all the leaves of the crown were trembling and a cold wind raised slashing swiftly through the place and each one of the leaves seemed like a whisper of a fluid melody of words. It was like hearing words in music that strangely I was able to decipher and those words sounded like a warning: -“ Like the most of you humans, what your eyes can see is just the shape of things and not the essence. Don’t you hear the storm approaching? Like so many times before, but it may be harsher and stronger than ever”.
“It’s a storm of many kinds and many faces that can hit from many sides and the only thing that can stop it from hurting is a rare to be found defence!”.
The oak went on while my full body stood unable to move notwithstanding drops of icy rain were already falling on my face. – “Then you see me like an object and call me a tree, but I am something you are not really able to see and I speak a language that most of you often do not hear. Without me there would be no shade, no rest, no haven, there would be no air to breath or rain to drink no burst of life but nothingness” .-
“However you’ve been so kind to me” – The oak kept saying ” – “and thoughtful taking my seeds around so I want to thank you for all the things I know giving you the knowledge you deserve to have for your direction and for all the times you’ll come to visit me here, I’ll tell you a story that I know is true and worth to know about”.
Then the rain started to pour and the oak stopped talking but immediately after all the leaves shaken by the winds were singing tuned by the beat of the drops.
These are my roots, this is my calling. To be an haven for birds and house for many more lives and for all of you if only you would let me grow freely.
I am the harbour of your dreams
The boat that takes you ashore
A bridge to cross the cliff
The hatred to be hindered
The calmness for your rest
The hope that never fades
The reason to keep walking
The flower you won’t pick
The snail you did’nt crush
A blanket for your dreams
A shield for your beliefs
The wind you cannot catch
The kindness never lost
The lighthouse to get back
The promise never broken
The trust that doesn’t fail
The bird that flew away
The fawn that you let run
The faith without reward
The regrets you did not keep
The smiles you gave for free.
This is the love above your love,
The love beyond all loves
That spreads its seeds all over,
that is the Tree of Love.
And Love is just the Tree
that shelters from the storm.
ennio forina
†
After the Darkness – Dopo l’Oscurità
Non importa chi siamo
come ci sentiamo
dove ci troviamo.
Non importa quanto profonda
e oscura sia stata la notte.
Non importa quello che ci è sfuggito
in fede, sogni e coraggio
nell’oscurità della notte.
Ci sarà sempre un’altra alba
e la luce splendente di un nuovo giorno
che si aprirà aspettando
di incontrare le nostre anime
e allontanare paura e dolore
che spesso crescono aspramente
nel buio della notte.
Resta solo a noi esser presenti
quando la nuda Speranza
solleva il manto oscuro
svelando una nuova
rigenerata offerta di Vita.
ennio forina
No matter who we are,
how we feel,
where we are,
No matter how deep
has been the darkness of the night.
No matter what we have missed
in dreams, in faith and courage
and how lost we were
in the darkness of the night.
There will always be another dawn
that opens up for us
in the shining light of a new day
waiting to meet our souls
and send away the fear and all the sorrows
that often harshly grow
in the darkness of the night.
We just need to be there
when the naked Hope
unveils the blanket of the darkness
and gives us a new chance
of a reborn offer of Life.
ennio forina
Ennio Forina. 