Sharing with friends my poem “Money, as Viewed by a Poet”, just published in the summer 2023 printed issue of “Westward Quarterly”, page 15. Many thanks to the dear editor Shirley Anne Leonard.
Sharing a new publication of mine
Human Generations
Recurring Dreams, left along the Way
We have passed through stumbles, pitfalls
and spells, almost daily,
which remain in the past, some of them
even into oblivion.
But really, we still do not know from where
and how, in its due time,
we have achieved strength to overcome
and to go ahead.
We know, or at least, believe,
that in our own power this could not be accomplished
without the contribution of a supernatural
and transcendent Power
that we are not able to understand or qualify.
We got used to attributing these experiences
to luck or fortuity, or even some
supposed but unknown merit of our own
that we cannot firmly expect to continue.
This is the fate of us humans, fragile beings
who live in faith and hope of the expected miracle
which will lead us to the redemption of our race:
The discovery of that once promised land,
where milk and honey flow in abundance
and evil never finds shelter.
(Published in West Ward Quarterly, Fall 2024 issue)
This poem and all others at this blog, authored by Edilson Afonso Ferreira ©
Sharing a new Publication of mine
Sharing with friends my five poems “Dreaming of a New World”; “My Family, Wars and Love”; “Days of Fury”; “Stumbles, Ambushes, and Spells”, “Fallen into Oblivion”, today published in the Literaary Review “Fevers of the Mind”. Many thank to the dear editor David L. O’Nan.
A Poetry Showcase from Brazilian Poet Edilson Afonso Ferreira
We are All Fiction
We are jealous of our lives, our desires,
and accomplishments, always gilding and beautifying
our performance, in order to become well seen,
well referenced, in our journey through this world.
Being careful, we act to reserve at least one page
in the book to be written of the history
of the time we have lived.
We strive, we sacrifice, to set the tone
of a certain and plausible reality, that could impact
on some we choose to love, among those
in the inevitable transmutations of our daily lives.
Let us be aware, however, that our world
in truth is not as real as it appears.
We have been, each one of us, acting our fiction,
that we have chosen since we became a being.
As one philosopher once wrote, this world
nothing more has been but our Creator’s dream,
where He sowed us as His creatures, whom,
in truth, has never ceased to love.
Let us strive, who knows, with a superhuman force,
to rise beyond the dream, arriving, at least
a little closer to one Reality, which we dare to perceive,
but never able to grasp with our own hands.
Published in West Ward Quarterly, Winter 2024
Published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, March 10 2024
http://www.lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com
This poem and all others at this blog, authored by Edilson Afonso Ferreira ©
Sharing a new publication of mine
My poem “Praise” has been published by the Literary Review “WestWard Quarterly”, in its spring 2023 printed issue, page 12. Many thanks to the dear editors Dr. Richard Leonard and Ms. Shirley Anne Leonard.
Days of Fury
Yesterday a friend of mine was praising a local psychologist.
She is excellent, the best in her profession, he said.
Do you believe that a mother died and her husband,
aware of the approaching doom, had entrusted
such psychologist to prepare their dear daughter
for the terrible episode in question.
He did so because he knew the extreme
and unique sensitivity of the girl
he and his wife loved so much.
Then, it was noted that, at the funeral
that one day took place, the girl did so well,
receiving the guests, even smiling,
just as she was at a party.
When my family and I come to be harassed
for the misfortunes that will surely appear,
may we honor the human condition in which
we have been endowed since ancient times.
May we pour out all grief and anguish
we will then pass by.
And, if we feel that way,
let us pull out all our hair.
Published in Fevers of the Mind, July 12, 2023
http://www.feversofthemind.com
Published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, October 9, 2023
Fallen into Oblivion
No more guys and girls happily driving
open-air convertible cars on weekends,
free of seat belts tethering their bodies,
sweet winds swaying, fighting and playing
their loose hairs.
No more
children walking on the streets to school,
carrying notebooks in their arms,
not in backpacks, not on buses.
No more
young boys playing marbles in holes
they had dug on vacant lots near home,
their mates flying kites heavens above.
No more
bicycling around only for pleasure,
without protective helmets and gloves.
No more
family sitting on the front porch after dinner,
sharing the latest neighborhood news.
No more
walking in the fields by night,
under tender and puissant moonlight.
No more
people greeting each other and sending good vibes,
even if they were unknown.
No more
fresh milk bottles delivered home by the morning,
but milk boxes at immense supermarkets,
with sleepless cameras furtively watching over us.
No more
letters, no business letters, no love letters,
only emails to be lost in cyberspace.
No more
couples who face the difficulties of everyday life,
profess mutual and sincere one forgiveness,
respect the common oath once made,
so engendering true and honest a love.
No more
parents, sons and daughters going out together at night,
carrying in common dreams, dramas and desires,
like a pack of wolves who have not learned to segregate.
No more
growing, assembling and sharing rooms and lives,
indifferent to some strange customs of those
who never knew to love and like themselves,
our children becoming children of all of us.
Published in Fevers of the Mind, July 12, 2023
http://www.feversofthemind.com
Published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, October 9 2023
http://www.lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com
Published in Well Read, November 2024
Published in Voices 2025, May 2025
Published in The Galway Review, July 30 2025
http://www.thegalwayreview.com
Published in Ivo Review, issue Two, December 2025
This poem and all others at this blog, authored by Edilson Afonso Ferreira ©
Sharing a New Publication of Mine
Sharing with friends my poems “Fears and Feelings”, “Silent Witnesses”, “Night”, Sweet Memories” and “Surprise at Dusk”, just published in the printed 2023 Winter issue of Westward Quarerly. Many thanks do the dear editors Dr. Richard Leonard and Ms. Shirley Anne Leonard, of Hamilton IL. They published me as the Featured Writer of that issue!
Pilgrimage
We walk in this borrowed world,
sharing loves and dislikes, coldness and caresses,
managing to create new hopes from disenchantment,
on cold nights knowing there will be a new tomorrow.
We are not given to know the due date of the loan,
nor how much we will have to pay in principal and interest.
We ignore what return we will have on investment
that we have done.
They call us humans, travelling just like on a bus
with no scheduled stops and an unknown destination.
We were left with some laws, also many legends,
dictated by a Creator and ancient ancestors,
who soon ignored us, hiding their faces,
as if repentant to create, raising, and strengthening us.
People say a promised land awaits us,
where milk and honey flow in abundance, and ashamed evil
always hides and has no shelter.
It is part of the legends, but we consider it as a law,
we, a generation that amalgamates all the will and desire
of all the righteous who have preceded us.
This poem and all others at this blog, authored by Edilson Afonso Ferreira ©
Sharing a new Publication of mine
Sharing with friends my poem “My Love for Earth”, just published in the Fall 2022 print issue of “West Ward Quarterly”, page 27. Many thanks to the dear editor Dr. Richard Leonard.
My Love for Earth
I know there is a final day for my life on earth.
Perhaps I will win the prize of the righteous,
which is, after death, living in Paradise.
But, oh my God, I love so much this planet
which You granted to us from earliest ages!
I love every sunrise, every new day calling me
to join forces and open new work fronts.
I love that scarlet red sunset that announces
the early evening, enchanting and bewitching
haunted nights, always full of beautiful women,
loving sisters of our race, only found here,
nowhere else.
I learned to love, hard and harsh, the way
we were condemned to gain our bread,
since the disobedience of our ancestors.
I think I will never be able to say goodbye
to this homeland, mine and of all of us.
If I come to deserve an eternal life,
please, leave me here, even if you have to enchant me
as an elf or a fairy, forever feeling its brown ochre scent,
among sinful, yet amorous brothers and sisters.
####
edilsonmeloferreira 