Slowly are memories laid down

On antique cushions

Searching for stripes of colors…

Dr. Ana Maria Lombardi, an acclaimed poet and writer from Italy, shares her poems

Ana Maria Lombardi is Doctor of Philosophy. A Psychologist. Psychotherapist, Poet and Essayist, she was born in the City of Art of San Severo (FG) and lives in the province of Bergamo. She has received important Career Awards, and other cultural and literary awards of great value. On 25th October 2024, with other names of great personalities of the international scene, at the PIME in Milan she was awarded for Excellence in Career for the Literature category.

Her poems have been translated into other languages as well as 19 volumes published, and are found in many Italian and foreign anthologies, national and international magazines on paper and on websites.

In 2024, she was been honored with the title of Knight of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere della Repubblica italiana). The author, who is also active as creator and organizer of national and international literary events, has written articles, essays, reviews and prefaces. She is also juror and president, even honorary, in important literary competitions of great prestige. She co-founder of the cultural association “Movimento Internazionale Artistico Letterario Group.”

Memories

Slowly are memories laid down

On antique cushions

Searching for stripes of colors

To lean on

Suspended dreams

Between fast clock hands

And river streams

That imperturbably

Continues the race.

 

Slowly are memories laid down

Making me find my first

Cries in gold boxes.

***

It happens, don’t despair

Don’t despair if life

Is not sweet chocolate

Spread on bread

Early in the morning,

If you can’t find on the street

Who opens his arms

Coming towards you,

If your wounds still

Burn under the sensitive

Skin and you can’t find the warmth

Of yesterday’s kisses,

If the blankets are short

And the tears let

The cold in at night,

If for a while

You don’t hear orchestras

Playing and the sun shining

And you can’t see beyond the mountain

You are climbing.

It happens, you know, it happened

Also to me, too many times, 

But then you realize that everything passes

And you feel much

Better than before and you can

Again meet

Hearts that smile

That perhaps already smiled at you

Without you realizing.

It happens, you know, that your torments

Have given way

To kisses from other souls

Ready to hold you in their arms

To warm your body and soul.

And, as you continue to climb

You will still be able to listen,

Coming from everywhere,

Too many types of music.

***

Essences of youth

Lying on green meadows

Soaked in hope

We leafed through pages

To the sound of love.

Swirls of colors,

Breaths of souls

Intertwined with perfumes

Of wet skins.

Essences of youth

That made us fly

Transforming us,

And that still today

We carry on.

***

Metamorphosis

Lace wrinkles on my face,

Written lines of stories,

Smiles, suffering:

Novel of emotions

And experienced feelings.

Your gaze lingers

When you meet me,

But don’t look at my skin,

The stick I carry,

The hands that tremble,

The old bent body.

See me in the depths of my soul

Where as a child I play and live my youth

And hug me blessing the sky

To have been able to see mine,

But also yours, metamorphosis.

***

We need Bridges

We need bridges built by hands

Capable of unraveling knots

Gangrenous from the neglect of time,

From endless greed

And by the inability to see beyond the walls.

 

In place of rusty painful

Flats of barbed wire,

Visible or invisible,

Let us bury seeds of flowers

Resistant and colorful:

 

Corridors of arms that know how to love,

Of hearts that know how to sing,

Of ropes that support

And keep the paths clear from one bank

To another, from one dawn to another.

 

Intertwining of bright streets that allow

To look into each other’s eyes without fear.

 

We must honor life to the fullest

And celebrate it moment after moment, always.

(Translated: Costantina Bruno)

_______________ 

Coordinated by Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter