On “Return of the Dove, Oil on Canvas, 1851, by John Everett Millais”

Genesis 8.11 – “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth”

We pretend having our life,

even world’s life, always under control,

from past generations to present days.

Sometimes we feel close to that certainty,

and it is good that this should happen,

giving us some encouragement on the route.  

We work with the mind and the heart,

science and desire, on outlining the future,

which we anticipate promising and happy.

Skirting around life’s corners, every so often,

we are faced with frightening facts,    

perhaps echoes of ancient Greek tragedies,

poor of hope in the human renaissance.  

Wars, revolutions, tyrannies and persecutions,

born on the drumming of soulless men,

have delayed landing in the promised land,

where milk and honey spur and light reigns,

preventing all evil once sown.

A land we have not yet arrived to,

but we heard an approaching sound   

of the beating of the wings of the dove

we released in our present generation.

The one that is bringing in its beak

the green branch of the tree of peace

and entire fraternal human feelings

Published in Ekphrastic Review, Dec 20, 2020

http://www.ekphrastic.net

My poem “Memorabilia” is published today, May 20th 2022, in the Literary Review “Rudderless Mariner Poetry”. Many thanks to the dear editor Bry White. Read (and enjoy) it at

https://www.rudderlessmarinerpoetry.com/blogpoetrysubmission/memorabilia-by-edilson-a-ferreira

My poem “Guilty a Heart” has been published in the Literary Review West Ward Quarterly, its printed Spring 2022 issue. Many thanks to the dear editor Shirley Anne Leonard.

Suddenly it is the day you were afraid of,

that you questioned yourself from so long,

doubting your strength to face it.  

Now it is clear you should not had worried,

you missed happy hours you could have had,

forever lost.

You did not know, but always were in your hands

the tools and weapons to win the fight you feared,  

that ambush traced since old times, by they

who neither loved or wished you good things.      

We know they planned to eliminate you

and make life easier for them and their acolytes.

Really, your presence nowadays surprises them,

who never expected seeing you alive and stand up.

They are not aware your spirit has been blessed  

since ancient ages of justice and righteousness,

what they would never be able to understand.

Moreover, they did not even dream    

that venomous and merciless your ancestors   

could put you on alert and guide your hands.  

Be sure your strength astonished them,

besides all who witnessed your struggle.  

You built secure pillars that will last forever,

for entire your offspring.

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

Buy (and read) my new Poetry Book, “Joie de Vivre – Caressing our Joy”, fifty unpublished poems, at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8182539161/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

My poem “Dangerous Regression” has been published in the Indian Literary Review “The Taj Mahal Review”, its printed December 2021 issue. Many thanks to the dear editor Santoh Kumar.

Lost on the Way

We created money to exculpate and

accommodate a reason for our diversity

and dissimilarity, to separate the happy

and the unhappy, the (so called) worthy

and the unworthy, as if we could modify

the equality of creation.  

We settled borders and built different countries,

as if this world had not been given to us in full.

We allowed shelter to evil, so that good

could be fought, giving reason for a judgment

and a sentence at the end of our earthly lives.

Unfortunately, it was not without reason

that Deuteronomy 32-20 tells us of gloomy

and sad decision of the Creator:

“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 – “

We know nor he or his prophets have yet revoked

cruel and severe such statement.

And the truth is, since then,

we go astray as lost sheep,

and cannot even find the way back.

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

My poem “Surprise at Dusk” was published on Feb 07 2022 in the Literary Review “Rudderless Mariner Poetry”. Many thanks to the dear editors. Read it at:

https://www.rudderlessmarinerpoetry.com/blogpoetrysubmission/surprise-at-dusk-by-edilson-a-ferreira

On the Watercolor “A Voice from the Cliffs”, 1883, by Winslow Homer.

Three young women standing on a hillside,

no doubt fisher girls at a break in their daily tasks,

spellbound and transfixed by the call of a skylark,

strain and ethereal sound that descends

from its hovering flight.  

Fascinated and worried, they certainly think

on people’s ancient beliefs that some bird’s songs

foreshadow a bad omen, or at least, warn us

for dangers in the future.  

Painted scene by Homer, in his summer season

at the fishing community in Cullercoats, England.

But now we know that these well-shown concerns

did not materialize.  

Winter and tempests which followed did not weaken  

the vigor and healthy yearnings of so industrious

and happy that community.

An example for all of us, not worry on winters

and tempests, that will, undoubtedly, be frightening us,

by upcoming days and scenes of our lives.

Published in The Ekphrastic Review, June 22th 2022

http://www.ekphrastic.net