Father’s Day.
By Catholic tradition it is made to coincide with the anniversary of St. Joseph, adoptive father of Jesus, who falls on March 19th.
For this anniversary I would like to introduce you to two poems by the artist Gentile Polo, dedicated to his sons, both grown up and far away.
“To my daughter”
When we thought of having you with your mother,
I craved you with all my heart.
You were already my little baby
inside mom’s belly
and all thoughts were still running
and more and more madly
to think what you were like.
I asked for help, work
that I had always known
and that basically I was looking for,
to give you what to me,
since he was a child, he had been denied;
so I lost your youth,
always talking far away.
But know that I did not see it like this:
I’m still dying inside,
thinking that something is missing
and that I made you wrong,
and I’m so sorry if I failed
to make you understand what I have always dreamed of;
but you must live for yourself
and look towards the future,
and know that I like it
being, until mine death, your father,
even if now I feel cut off
of one of the most beautiful branches
in which I have always believed.
And yet I believe
and I wait
that shows that perfect flower
to yourself, as a first thought,
and then also to the others, who like me
they will only be able to enjoy the rest
that in you it will be done, as I am sure, by itself …
“To my son”
And then there are dreams,
that draw our future:
horizons apparently always close,
handy,
to which we run
when we need help;
moments lived
in a usually stationary body
or continuous torment
provocateurs,
that reveal all our fears
but that make us think
in the waking hours.
Perceptions maybe gone crazy,
that find a single purpose
to protect the heart and the mind.
Perhaps we are still looking for
that giant and safe beech,
in the snow in the woods,
guardian of the friend’s pasture,
which imposes, with the widened branches,
a quiet thinking
to reach healthy goals,
feeding the mind
and giving hope
and that helped me to believe
that, in the midst of so much candor,
could bloom over time
still a beautiful flower
so … how it was.
The poems are published by Aletti Editore di Altre Sembianze S.r.L.
in the book “Pensieri … Una strada in salita”, Gentile Polo (2017).
http://www.alettieditore.it/emersi/2017/Polo.html
https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/pensieri-strada-salita-polo-gentile/libro/9788859147442
https://www.lafeltrinelli.it/libri/gentile-polo/pensieri-una-strada-salita/9788859147442
https://www.unilibro.it/libro/polo-gentile/pensieri-una-strada-in-salita/9788859147442
https://www.amazon.it/Pensieri-strada-salita-Gentile-Polo/dp/8859147441
http://www.libreriamontalbano.it/prodotto/pensieri-una-strada-in-salita-gentile-polo-i-e-code/
From me and the Studio d’Arte Gentile Polo then a happy Father’s Day to everyone!
(Lucia Martorelli – Gentile Polo Art Studio)