The Voice Within

There is a voice that never stops speaking,

no one hears it, but me.

It talks to me wherever I am,

but at the solitude of night and alone in my room,

it is better heard.

Never ceases to say there has been an angel,

the special envoy of our Lord, always protecting

and looking after me, since I was a child.

Every year I live,

I am learning more and more to understand

and decipher all messages passed to me.

The voice says that my mission still persists

and I have all the means to accomplish it.

It says that past misdeeds, stumbles and tumbles

have happened for nothing more than to give me

all strength and confidence I am now able to.

So I believe and cannot doubt anymore.

The mission I can never fail is the simplest

a creature must fulfill for his Creator, that of,

always and everywhere,

praising Him.

 

Published in Spirit Fire Review, August 2017 issue.

http://www.spiritfirereview.com.

What I Can Promise

Man that I have born, member

of our common human race

and tied to an expiration date,

unknown but taken for granted

to all of us, I can’t live otherwise,

but in a great hurry.

I can’t wake every day and live as if I were

an old English Lord, boasting a politeness

and a selfness I’m never able or capable of.

I like to be faithful to whom and what I am,

the heir of poor and suffering forefathers,

just this, nothing more.

No one must expect great deeds, much less

memorable feats, for I didn’t arrive for this.

Indeed a son of God, but He or His Angels

didn’t bequeath me other powers besides

wide friendship and some love to my equals.

Comrade with much pride for brothers and

sisters, I wish to share efforts in moving the hard

and heavy wheels of time, towards sacred and

promised a new land, towards which, I believe,

we are journeying.

 

This poem and all others at this blog, authored by Edilson Afonso Ferreira ®

Past Revisited

I have a past that it is only mine

and no one else’s.

They have no notion of my misdeeds,

even the many sins I have perpetrated in it.

Now I know that those grievous faults

surely have been forgotten and forgiven

exclusively and solely by God’s mercy.

My past failures have perfected my life,

helping to forge the man I am nowadays,

one who learned from his mistakes and,

like an ancient phoenix,

has been reborn from his ashes.

May I show all my gratitude to this world,

doing all the good I can to my fellow ones, yet

forgiving them, as I have been forgiven.

 

Published in Spirit Fire Review, issue 10, June 2017.

http://www.spiritfirereview.com

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 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 some lovers I have had,

I spoke not only with looks.

I created a crazy language,

mad and infatued one;

not from mouth to ear,

but from mouth to mouth.

Published in Creative Talents Unleashed, Featured Writer, June 17, 2017.

http://www.creativetalentsunleashed.com

Published in the Sept-Oct.2017 issue of Indiana Voice Journal

http://www.indianavoicejournal.com

Published in Highland Park Poetry, January 2019 Winter Muses’ Gallery

http://www.highlandparkpoetry.org/themusesgalllery.html

Published in Tree House Arts, July 24, 2019

http://www.treehousearts.me

Prohibited For The World

When you cuddle and kiss me,

with an endearment only you can,

I feel guilty for unfolding so a happiness,

unknown and denied to those who pass by.

Maybe even some ghosts, survivors

from past bad lives, have been looking at us,

our love bothering them.

I also wonder if angels fled from Paradise,

flying over earth, have not seen us, and,

perplexed, could initiate a second wave of

the fallen angels.

We must live indoors so true our love,

hidden from suspicious and envious eyes,

inconvenient and undesirable witnesses.

No living being, people or bird,

nor all this park, these trees and mountains

can capture all the joy destiny has blessed us.

Fears, Feelings, and Wants

There are certain weekends and holidays

when I feel myself somewhat insecure.

I worry whether walking ghosts have occupied

the void of empty streets and closed doors,

looking at me as an intruder or suspicious

on their ways.

I miss hearing the sound of hammers and

hoes, the strident come and go of saw blades,

the brushing of pens on paper or keyboards

being typed, throwing feelings over the world.

I love the imprecations of painters and artists

when they can’t find the pure art they look for.

I love children screaming through the sidewalk,

running endless races only they are capable of.

I love the noise of people on streets and alleys,

corners and places,

jointly seeking to move the hard wheels of time.

I love hearing someone making something,

even if it could be the buzzing of bees.

Published in TreeHouse Arts, Sept. 6, 2017.

http://www.treehousearts.me

Published in Fevers of the Mind, Sep 18 2023

http://www.feversofthemind.com

Solitude

Silence of night sometimes brings peace to me

and courage to adventure to my past, a region

only known by me and anyone else.

I go a little timorous, for it is a dangerous trip

and by the way, I am greeted by friends, lovers,

enemies, grandfathers, cousins, even by myself.

Then, undoubtedly alive, they talk to me and ask

for news of the present, where now I live.

Soon we are laughing like old comrades,

absent for so long,

talking about everything and everyone.

On leaving, one or other intends to follow me,

but I go home alone.

I suspect that past is jealous of its deeds

and always hides how has woven them.

I think it must be visited as few times

one is capable of.

Published in Creative Talents Unleashed, Featured Writer, April 02, 2017

Sometimes It Happens

Some days I do not just wake up;

I get a renaissance.

I stare up and see a new sky,

a blue one I had never seen before;

a fresh air never felt in my lungs and

a music until then unknown for me.

I need to hold on not to become like

the novice of The Sound of Music

dancing in the Austrian Alps.

I don’t recognize yesterday’s colors

and see admirable amusing people.

It seems to me a brave new world,

the rediscovery of America, a sudden

and happy recurrence of hopes held.

It is my day and nobody else’s.

I hold and clasp it with all my strength

and, oftentimes, it lasts almost forever.

 

Published in Spirit Fire Review, April 2017.

http://www.spiritfirereview.com

Lost By The Way

“Deuteronomy 32-20 – Then He said,

I will hide My face from them,

I will see what their end will be;

For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness”

You have put us to the test,

leaving us alone,

missing your guidance

and the words of your prophets.

We go astray as lost sheep

and cannot even find the way back.

It is time You remind us,

putting an end to these gloomy days,

renewing some love and care,

which, we dare to believe and hope,

a Creator is indebted to his creature.

Sweet Heritage

I surely know they are lost in the brumes

of a magic almost surreal past time, but

we are always, mainly in longing nights,

pushing away the mists and remembering

such sterling old days, when we did not know

how happy we were.

Surrounded at home by family,

guests commonly stared at us

admiration and ecstasy glances,

yet envious and jealous ones.

People cannot ever dream all the joy we have

on remembering those glorious unique days,

for so little affordable.

Although sorrowful we feel,

doubtful of current and coming times,

the bliss of our past still shines, being

a proud pledge for the rest of our lives.

Published in Red Wolf Journal, March 24, 2017.

http://www.redwolfjournal.wordpress.com