September 13, 2017

Three poems by Edilson Afonso Ferreira: "Cherished Desires," "Your Earthly Days," and "Languages"

Edilson Afonso Ferreira,73, is a Brazilian poet who prefers to write in English rather than Portuguese. He began his literary life when he was 67 and has been published in numerous literary journals. Ferreira lives in the small town of Formiga with his wife, three sons and a granddaughter. His first Poetry Book, “Lonely Sailor,”is scheduled for publication in 2018 by Olympia Publishers, London, UK. He was been nominated for The Pushcart Prize 2016.






Cherished Desires

I feel I could never be related to owls, bats
and wolves, or other nocturnal animals.
I love at daylight to stare at the world face to face,
entirely visualizing all its beauties.
I love the sunrise that dispels the blackness,
exposing and revealing everything, without
shame, measure or prudency.
I love to feel that we’re on the road again,
to a future we aren’t aware of, but confident
in one Almighty that, closely and amorously,
hidden and discreet, maybe even shy,
drives and guides all of us.
I love the noise of people on streets and alleys,
corners and places,
jointly seeking to move hard wheels of time.
I prefer love vows done clear under the sun
than those by the rapture of night passions.
I must confess that, on some sunny days
and a blue sky,
I dream to ride the winds high and high,
looking for the lost realms of Paradise.



Your Earthly Days

At your birth, you frightened people
by a loud and harsh cry, clamoring
by the loss of the motherly warmth
and arriving, without prior consent
in a strange, indeed bright new world.
Since then, immutable fate, which
always writes the history of our days,
has given you, besides your family,
your friends, lovers, also enemies.
This, with little of hard a toil and
unfailing faith, fatally will bring you
the lot awarded for all of us: doubts
and fears, defeats, and, sometimes,
some triumphs and glories.
Expect usual and pitiless pain, but
never abdicate to pursue happiness,
although always hidden and furtive.
Prior to all, remember Eternity remains
on the Lost Paradise, far beyond from us.
Valorize your earthly days, never denying
those dark and dull ones, they are as a fee
to be alive; they are our Star of David, that
we must not refuse to carry.
Blend them with the happy ones, smiling
and going ahead, fearless and audacious,
just as must be a man.

(Published in Red Wolf Journal)



Languages

I don’t like soft-spoken people,
with unhurried speeches and
calculated talks and gestures,
conveying thoughts and doctrines
with professional and doctoral air, users
of attentive audiences and easy applauses.
I get bored and cannot hear them.
I’m aware that time is running out,
our life short, finite and imponderable,
and so inaccurate our common insight
that pompous speech becomes suspicious.
My words are little heard, in fact,
I was born a poet and I talk on paper,
where they are written, to be read by people
with all the time and right to refuse them.
My family and friends look like me,
our eyes speak more than words.
But with lovers I have had,
I spoke not only with looks.
I created a crazy language,
a more loving one;
not from mouth to ear,
but from mouth to mouth.

(Published in Creative Talents Unleashed)


© Edilson Afonso Ferreira

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