Why does peace seem like just a mirage?
Why is your messenger of peace
A prey to merciless crows
And its olive branch fell
In the boundless ocean of evil?”
Giuseppina Giudice, an acclaimed poetess from Italy, shares her poetry
Giuseppina Giudice, born in Agropoli town of Italy, received significant awards and recognitions for her poetry, including: one from the Rai of Rome, another with a medal from the Senate (Rome), then the nomination of “Accademic Benemerita” (Rome 2003) and Accademic Leopardiana (Reggio Calabria 2011), a “Career Award” (Pomigliano d’Arco 2010), the “ Woman of Honour Award” 2010 (SA), she was nominated “Membru of Honour” and was awarded with the Diploma de Excelentia (Mihailesti – Romania 2004). “Poetess of the year” (Telese 2004). She is present in the golden book of contemporary Italian poets of Cefaluart. She is a member of Wiki Poesia and of the Republic of poets. Finalist at “Mario Soldati Award” 2016. She received the critics’ Award at “Love Words Competition” 2022 (NA). She has published 4 collections of poems, 5 novels, a collection of short stories, three books of fables. She is present in various Italian and foreign anthologies. Selected and awarded at “Spoleto Arte” 2021. She received the “Modigliani Award” (2023). Various poems appeared in a lot of magazines and newspapers and were translated into Serbian, Albanian, Spanish, Romanian, Polish and English. She partecipated in “Zenica International Literary Festival” (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 editions). She is present in “Vibrations Litteraires” with 31 poems in French; in the anthology Un Grito par la paz (Mexico); In GEMS- IV and GEMS-VIII (India); in Striving for Peace; In Bridges to Tomorrow ; in Midnight Moments; in Farewell to War. She was rewarded at “Segni di Pace Award” (Assisi- 2024); at “Special Childhood Competition” – Rome 2023; at “Special Woman”- Rome 2022; at the 4th “Competition for the Shoah and Peace”- Palmi 2024; at “Litterae Florentinae Competition” – Florence 2023; “Le Nove Muse”- 2023 – Naples; “Città del Galateo” Rome- 2023-; “Cygnus Aureus” – Rome 2022. She was awarded “Master of Pictorial Art” (Daman- India 2023) and has received the “Universum Donna 2024 Award” by Universum Academy Switzerland with the nomination of “HonoraryAccademic”.
Where is the peace?
In these days of horror and senseless cruelty,
I seek you, O My God, with a lost and frightened soul.
And I find you on the snowy peaks,
On the bell tower of the churches of the world,
In the colors of the sky and the sea,
In the gaze of many innocent, hungry, terrified children;
In the eyes of different peoples imploring peace.
And I ask you with anger and pain:
“Why are the birds of death
Always stronger than those of good?
Why does peace seem like just a mirage?
Why is your messenger of peace
A prey to merciless crows
And its olive branch fell
In the boundless ocean of evil?”
***
No more war!
The inconsolable tears of grieving mothers,
Or of children dying far from home,
The pain, the rubble, the exterminations, the holocaust…
They were not enough to sweep away the winds of war.
Where is the desire, the will, the need for peace?
Where is universal love?
Like runaway horses
We have torn away the reins
Of common sense, of universal love.
By kicking we have unearthed the hatchet
And have forgotten what “war” means.
We walk backwards.
The dark, fratricidal past,
Who sprayed the meadows of the world with red,
Who raised nauseating smoke,
Which has clouded the eyes and consciences,
Is still present!
The cold white gravestones,
Strange perennial flowers
Widespread in the meadows of the world,
Have no scent, but they speak to the world:
“Death has no future! No more war!”
Let’s join hands like brothers
And move forward together
On the paths of peace!
***
I would have liked to travel a long way…
I would have liked to travel a long way,
To know distant countries,
To satisfy hunger,
To defeat the cold.
“Seven pairs of shoes”
Or perhaps more I would have consumed!
But there was only
A pair of clogs each,
In that distant winter of war.
When the grown-ups left
With their heavy boots,
And we, barefoot,
On the doorstep
With eyes full
Of sadness and envy…
_____________
Coordinated by Angela Kosta, Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, and promoter.
