I know I am heading towards the unknown,

but, as my equals,

we have no choice.

We must to accept the fact that this world,

just like the destiny mapped out for our lives,

have been made independently of our will,

our desire, much less of supposed intelligence

should we even have had.  

The successes we have achieved on the challenges

throughout our time, have been at a much high level

to our strengths and talents, and, in fact,

we do not know as we have managed to go so far.

In this present time, when we look back, we witness

how hard and painful the journey has been.

Also, we see the immensity of what remains to be accomplished,

for the will and desire we propose continues to challenge us,

and we must to prove, yet and already, with so great a delay,

that we did not just come for pleasure.

We have to carry out the project always dreamed of

by brothers with upright, loving and fraternal hearts,

of that promised land, where flows abundant milk

and honey, and from where evil will be expelled,

defeated, ashamed and humiliated, banished

forever from human society. 

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

The atmosphere that my spirit breathes,

which provides its sustenance, is so different

than those ones I see, or rather, I feel,      

when I leave my confinement, going out   

to live with my peers.

Mine has been conceived and woven 

since my tender years by my ancestors,

dear unique parents and grandparents.

I have sought to perfect its strength and

quality, as I go, daily, through a destiny   

traced only for me and from which  

I must not, nor do I intend, to deviate.  

It is a spirit that has grown not only

in its happy days, but also perfected

in some dark and strange adversities.

Nowadays, has learned the hard way

to be quite impenetrable to the eyes

of malice and evil.

Has been always grateful, year after year,

to the Greatest Spirit, our Common Creator.     

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

On the day I die,

or on subsequent days,

whatever will be the new world

to which I will be sent,

I will never stop missing this one,

where for so many years I lived.

Forever I will remember these happy days,

friends, lovers, sincere smiles and kind words,  

born of honest coexistence with my fellow ones.

I will be sure the body that will remain here,

defeated by time and its ills, surely had carried  

a strong spirit with which had been born,

such spirit will last forever and ever.  

I will learn to discard, what will give me even

a certain pleasure, those dark moments left by

unconscious brothers, misfits in their generation,  

who gave me anything and added up to nothing.    

The good memories I will carry far outweigh

the disappointments and displeasures I faced;

these latter, perhaps, to some extent, fruit  

of too much believe, too little misdoubt.

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

Mornings and afternoons, centuries and seasons,

they are always blowing the dust which settles

in my body, daily corrupting and weakening it.

Age weighs heavily, muscles become thinner,

thoughts flow slowly, hair thins and turns white,

I cannot hide or camouflage the marks  

of the passing years.    

But my spirit has been kept deep inside my soul,

and, quite the contrary, it strengthens, does not

break down, it rejuvenates and rises up.

And so, I am coming to the end of my times,

perhaps I can still represent a little 

of our long-suffering and beloved human race.

The one that fights and does not give up on continuing

to write their history of difficult struggles,

many setbacks, few but valuable achievements

and victories, what serve as an example

and encouragement to those who will come.

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

Day is done, has finished its performance.

Stilly slides, hides its face from our world.

Has given us a time to be, weave our cloths.

Still carries some untold words and feelings

some of us had not been able to demonstrate.

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