Author: Edilson Afonso Ferreira

Warning

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

Must I love so many times? It calls at my door.

May I go fast just be called for,

and prompt the singing of that chant rarely heard.

May people be surprised and overjoyed,

finding on the air some traces evincing

that, somewhere, someone still loves.

May this world not destroy the feelings

we are ready to afford to our lonely souls.

May we, also, learn to spread a low sound,

for people are accustomed to envy such rare

and sweet true lovers.

 

Published in the Anthology “The Children of Orpheus”, by Subterranean Blue Poetry, October 2016.

Remarks on a Birth Signal

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

Once, a hopeless face at the corner, for fear,

did not dare to ask you for alms.

Then, in spite of having noticed this,

you kept on your way.

Once, a friend spoke to you about his sorrows,

hoping you could be a confidant or counselor;

you actually noticed this, but,

indeed, you did not dare to.

You surely remember, another day, that business,

so good for you and a bad bargain for the other,

and you, even though conscious of, shut it away.

By another day, hearing just your son speaking

loud and clear,

some hard and insidious words to the world,

you, silent, did not restrain him.

Knowing the true love a woman is capable of,

and surely aware yours the most loving of all,

you have never loved her half this way.

Although late we are to demand such things,

do not forget we were marked by birth a signal,

that of being answerable for any of our equals.

May we also say that to you, God-gifted a man,

it is not allowed so little to support and cherish.

Published in Dead Snakes, March 21, 2016.

http://www.deadsnakes.blogspot.com

Chains I must break

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

I am in a hurry to wander by,

to love and praise world’s beauties,

before, all at once, they cease to be.

I must love mainly the sad ones,

that were not loved

not by lack of lovers

but by lack of love.

So proud of my want,

only will praise some wild

and lost in hidden waterfalls,

after untrodden ways.

I will break my heavy chains

and soon start my journey,

avoiding one chronic sadness

and the trampling of the ways

I will pass by.

 

Published in Red Wolf Journal, January 05, 2016.

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com

Foreboding

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

By suddenly noticing the largeness of the horizons

and all beauty they unceasingly frame our world.

By tender and dreamlike resting tonight,

always seeing her face before asleep.

By enjoying full air all the day long,

missing it when she approaches me.

Surely, I must be in love.

But with whom, I have no doubt that

nor to the walls should I reveal.

 

Published in Red Wolf Journal, January 06, 2016.

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com

Published in The Basil O’Flaherty, spring 2019 issue.

http://www.thebasiloflaherty.weebly.com

A Cavalcade and a Prayer

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

Outdoors, on sunny days

and blue a sky,

I ride the wind to see all the beauties that are spread

by all this earth.

Indoors, by night and before sleep,

I pray and kiss these walls that gently have sheltered

the rest and dreams of a man born in old a caste,

now in oblivion; they who live only by the sake of love,

having learned anything else,

nothing more.

 

Published in Red Wolf Journal, January 07, 2016.

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com

Sudden Love

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

When I saw you and faced your beauty,

you did not know that I was ignorant of love.

Nor did I.

But you dared with the adventure of youth

and, fearful, surprised, seduced, I was loved.

 

Love came, all of a sudden, firm and bold.

Despite not expected, he lodged as beloved son

who, long absent, returns to the paternal home.

 

You stared at me and your lips and eyes said words

I had never known and never listened to: I love you.

By these words, like a blessing, you joined us forever.

 

I remember that I felt as if I was caught in a rain,

one of those admirable summer rains,

that shakes the winds and frightens with thunderbolts

but cleans skies, shines hearts, refreshes the soul.

 

With love you blew slumbering coals

that I had never supposed would exist.

The flame lit and rises, higher and higher;

maybe it reaches even our hidden heaven.

 

Take care that flame just warms it, do not destroy,

nor reveals to suspicious and envious human eyes.

 

(Published in Red Wolf Journal, January 16, 2016)

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com

Old Days

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

Once happiness touched me and I am sure

anyone never will take it from me.

Its touch has branded me with a living fire,

impregnating me with so stellar a light

only very few of us have been afforded.

I am sure that for life and yet beyond its borders

we will remain cherished by the joy and beauty,

for ours were some days of pure hearted love.

 

Published in Red Wolf Journal, January 20, 2016.

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com

Still loved

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

Somewhere, sometime, in the old East Lands,

in a spot relieved for four rivers, shadowed

by luxurious a garden, at royal a manor house,

by one saint sixth labor day, we awaken to life.

Made on the Creator’s likeness, by many years

we enjoyed His care and His love.

Once, on uncovering life secrets, like

good and evil, our ancestors were banished

having our Lord lock the Paradise Gate.

Since then, the hard and harsh of our toiling,

no one really knows, but You, our Creator.

How much longer will our penalty last?

When and where should we meet again?

Although heavy sternness demonstrated,

be aware many of us still venerate You,

and, some, still love.

We hope to see once more inhabited

that manor house where all has begun,

appeasing Your heart and retreating

some cherubims at the Paradise Gate.

 

Published in Dead Snakes, February 29, 2016.

http://www.deadsnakes.blogspot.com

Published in West Ward Quarterly, printed Spring issue 2017.

http://www.wwquarterly.com.

Are some Cherubims still on guard?

/ Edilson Afonso Ferreira / Leave a comment

 -The first enchantment and its punishment–

 

When we and this world were young, long ago,

God inhabited the Garden of Eden and cared us.

He loved us with so stern and strange affection.

Once, woman tried to raise her companion

more close to God,

more equal to Him.

Had not He created man to His likeness?

Indeed, she looked for security and plenitude,

perhaps a kind of a fellowship with their Lord.

Then, she taught man the science of good and evil,

  • The science of life –

changing his role in the play from man to human,

and from companion to husband.

Plenty of delight, he jumped, danced and sang.

God heard and asked – what this carol?  Who does this come from?

Astonished and without clemency, He banished them,

saying – “you will eat bread with the sweat of your face;

toiling the land, you will suffer with thorns and thistles;

your sons will come to light with suffering for your wife.”

Oh, God, You created wise and beautiful a woman

and surely your son has had no other choice than

madly to fall in love with her!

Would it not be time to forget and forgive, disarming

some cherubims’ flaming swords?

Published in Dead Snakes, February 07, 2015.

http://www.deadsnakes.blogspot.com