Ansiosita' Serali (Anxious Evening)

Nebulosa tremula in faccia all' Argentario,
girasole lento dalla cima china,
nel torpone del tramonto l'aria assume un vago aspetto.
Sere d'ovest ove il sole irradia le sue calde note
di un silenzioso soluto,
al di la della sfera diurna la frattura dei due mondi.
Ciclo cosmico d'immensita perduta
dove lo specchio siderale riffete la tua anima
ospite della grande festa della vita.

(Dedicated by Paolo Manali)

Once

The wind walks away
With the songs of mine.
How oddly doing that,
Good for another thousand times
To bring them back,
To remind me
That once
We were in love.
Still dangerous thing to remember,
Playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning...
One way or another there is something cruel
About the feelings that live in the past,
For once
We were in love.

(Painting: George Barbier, USA)

Between Two Breaths

I want to grieve a little bit,
Right now, with a melancholy like an woman.
Just to sit down brushed back
With painted lips and powder puff,
With an white lace napkin
As a pigeon on my hand,
Trying to take up the tear
Dimmed the eyes like an opal gem.
But such a life rushes on me at once,
So much concerns and troubles, 
That I must push with elbows to defend myself,
To shout out so that I may not be buried deep,
To strike so that I may take a breath...

(Excerpt from Liana Daskalova's poem)
Artist: Sophia Mazaraki, Greece

The Queer Prescription Of The Herbalist Moss

Gody has a birthday tonight. He is a host and something like a God but with "y" in the end. It's not enough for the girls to say that looks beautiful; his eyes remind of dark emeralds where excepting the light are refracted any possible female glances. Actually Gody is so confident and possesses such a magnificence that I suspect he takes course in good manners. This is not cock-and-bull talking, because anyone who knows him well (I'm not of that group, but I have ears) will confirm that he is willing to start on learning anything which could brings to him a lofty mien.
Silvester, an acquaintance of mine is Gody's friend and often says that he reads rarely but keeps in mind a lot of phases and important quotes.
Silvester likes to talk about Gody's singularity, but only when he is not around and cannot hear him. Everyone was aware of sensitiveness of the host. His girlfriends repeatedly felt incomprehensible fear of possibility to be slapped in the face; that's why they often try to hold his hands as long as they can.
Silvester is so naive about things beyond his business. He would believe even in fairy tale if only it sounds contemporarily enough. On the other hand, if some money and investitions are involved there is no such insightful and robotic mind like his own. It seems that he is informed weeks ahead regarding any possible profitability, and now he hints to me that I have no clue when it comes to money...

To Be Continued
(Painting: Mijo Kovacic, Croatia)

Dedicado

Tu nombre es una casa de la lluvia.
Un caballo, que hace la reverencia.
Un baile diminuto de melodía en casa ajena
Y tiempo para pensamientos locos...
Sé que la esperanza encontrarte en esta ciudad es vana.
Hace mucho perdí mi nombre
La marea sale en la oscuridad de la noche.
No tengo poder de buscarte, ahora,
No tengo la vida para tu y yo.
De ahora soy la desconocida para ti.

(Painting: Elena Vedernikova, Russia)

FORBIDDEN

My forbidden lover,
Forbidden by the means of distance,
Unheard still.
Cuts the time to pieces,
Looking for harmony
In the theater of my destiny.
You should have let me
out of your sight.
I cannot act that play out,
For you are my forbidden lover,
Let us be sincere to each other...

(Painting: Henri Lebasque, France)

Vedd And The Sea That Left Him

In the land lain between the notched mountains Bonta and Zumska lived the people of Adelia. Among the guys from other places it was rumored that in this area the children were born deformed or later they gone insane, in order to expiate the sin of a hero named Taet, who refused to be submissive to their god and directed often angry and insulting words to the deity. Sadly, Taet was struck by lightning and Adelia became a land of punishment.
Those people who were not still punished trembled at the thought they will be crippled sooner or later and the fear grew stronger and pushed them out of the ordinary life. This misgiving isolated them in high stone houses and crushed their relationships as an ant on the road. It would be possible that the ax twists so that to cut someone's leg. It would be possible that some bird or prey goes down to peck someone's eye.Also it would be possible that a man goes insane with the fear of the darkness, of the deep river, of the endless forest.
Being slaves of their unbelief they were not afraid of God, but only of punishment, as if these two things were not related. People used to fear of each unfortunate day and the fear was the root where their life grew from. In those times Adelains were accustomed to it, but there were few who successed in escaping from the enchanted land.
Tada did it. Throughout the engagement's day she promised to Vedd that she will be a good wife, and in the night she disappeared for good. As though under the earth. Her brothers failed to track her, although they roamed about the river valley and the bordering mountains for three days. The boat of her young brother was missing. No doubt she ran off in the dead of the night desperately looking for other country.
- Somewhere people possess courage and never put up with anything or anyone! - she used to say it often to Vedd.
So Tada sailed to south alone, leaving behind the promise to marry Vedd.
Why she put him through this? She already has made her wedding dress thorough many long days of work. And endless efforts because her fingers were not like the other girls. She had only three fingers on each hand. By birth, by holy punishment of their deity.
Why she ran away. Adelia was her land for better or for worse, and Vedd loved her, wishing to spend the life together.
- I am going to find her! - he said to her father before following her tracks.
Then got in the boat and sailed later in the night. Vedd was waiting for native people to fall asleep so that not to stop him from going forth. Oddly enough he was not punished yet. Sometimes Vedd retired into himself and used to dream the God will never reach over him, but this feeling disappeared as quickly as it came.
- This is our fate! - he told Tada, - We have to be truthful to it, because it's not possible to skip the deity who might take us captive whenever.
- The more I look at Adelians, the more I despite them!
Now Vedd tried to recall every talk with her while he fought the boughs above the river.
After three days heavy rowing he reached the Dobsko Lake. It was a land where people has been having fun all the time, doesn't matter if it is a day or night. Vedd thought away his fiance cannot be attracted of such frivolous life.
He went near to souvenir shop and asked the sales guy:
- I am seeking for a girl named Tada. She disappeared, I came to find her!
- Some called that love over years! - The man laughed loudly. - But in this place it's a history! Well, come in my Inn and be cheerful!
Vedd was silent. Something was out of hand. It could be the air, it could be the fiction that wants to be a truth. He knew the day will be dragging on as if a tortoise carried it about.
Just before the sunset he went near the lake. There were songs to fill the air and the fires lifted them into the stars. He remembered the way Tada walked about the path during their last meeting, silent as the silence, more autumnal than the autumn; looking at the ground walked away calmly, without fear and anxiety, sorting the likings and the hatreds in her mind...

To Be Continued
(Painting: Edivaldo, Brazil)

SOME PRESAGE

Maybe It's the right time for us,
In the coloured summer garden, when the guitars sing,                                            
Are we able to sleep at such a night of silver moon...
You did take me captive and forgot to set me free.
I could steal your whisper. Do not take liberties on me.
You gave me no sign, and didn't let me through,
Still, you can sense that special calm?
An anxious silence wanders over hills,
Where keeps silent a volcano.
Don't you know what the magic is?
After dark...
Some stranger plays the piano.

(Painting of Edivaldo, Brazil)
 

Dedicated

Your name is a home of the rain,
A horse that takes a bow,
A tiny dance of melody in the air
And time for crazy thoughts.
I know, the hope to find you in this town is vain.
I have no name...
In the dead of the night, the tide is going out.

(Painting of G. Bellati, Italy)

Conversations With C. Mclean, N. Kunchev, Y. Yankov and L. Levchev

If you look for your whisper you've got to know I took it along. I hold it in my soul like a cricket that sings to me: about love as one song. Your dream of a girl kissed by the moon, our teacher in madness.
There are two songs about love. The secret admirer and me, before we met. Still, the cat who is ex-keeper of an Egypt tomb hangs around in attempt to catch the wind.
"In a bizarre way!" - I said.
"Because the madness is about to get back, should we get scared?" - My secret admirer asked.
"You will hear orders and requests from me. I will tell you what I conceal. Leave some pain to me. Do not pass over me! I am a stone loaded with blast, the clock ticks and the obscure hour goes near to me!"
So, I got engaged to the loneliness. It insisted on it and I remained unimpressed. However there is a measure of the degree of disorder in us, which takes into account the fact that the mess naturally increases with the passage of time.
I had part of my heart missing, anyway.
"We are all perfect, but what we learn and what we do is not always perfect, especially considering the arena in which we play our game of life. I would like to think that I am fine socially, but I am very anti-social and do not prefer to follow the social laws of man, therefore it would be considered I make mistakes." - My secret admirer said.

To Be Continued
Painting: Leon Kroll

An Winter Evil And Sudden Rushed At Me That Night

A boy appeared suddenly, like a magical spirit from One Thousand And One Nights. He brought so many things on his back. It seemed that infinity lay in his pocket. I touched the boy's hand and forecasted he will grow old, happily.
A flower of the desert was he. A boy, who just wanted to behave as a man. In fact he really was at times. There were words developed in an expected way, nevertheless impossible to be said. Some necessity of love, whether was it for real nobody understood after all.
There were talks without stopping, without thinking. He set me back into the childhood and made me feel as a child again. Our carefree state of mind was the bracelet of our hands. The wind followed us like a wanting slave and the houses guarded us from sins.
He showed to me how to take a step barefoot in the rain. And the fairy-tales had no end. Somewhere the magic arose, between south and north, between east and west, somewhere or here.
I used to hurry up somewhere as if against my will.Why the fox runs around the house? So that she might have her meal in order to gain what has been lost yesterday.
When the day plays chess with the night then no answers are valid. The king is lost, the queen carries on. On the table lay a key for every door we never managed to use. We only found the proper words, but did not dare to take the moon from heaven.
A harpsichord played Bach's cantata and the time has come for the boy to find that something disappeared in the cold winter and with the hours running out the feeling will be the same no longer. However the man's sigh is short and the life is bound by happiness, so let the earthquake be. It will make us grave.
The boy will be late when he walks on upward slopes. That's the way you get to know the price of any road. He would be in a hurry because the heat could pass away and it was not so often that the air is hot during such a day.
Strangely white snow was falling at midnight. The boy was young, that's why these things evoked anxiety. But he did not clear a path and never made way for me.
He knew that it would sadden me.

 

TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD ALREADY KNOW BY NOW

1. What’s important today won’t matter tomorrow
Yeah, so you got a problem. Sleep on it, sunshine. Put it off. Most problems can be safely ignored. You’ll be amazed how often they sort themselves out.
And the gravity of any given problem is inversely proportional to the hour of the day. At three in the morning,  you’ve got an insurmountable issue. After four whisky and cokes at nine in the evening, you haven’t even got an inkling of a problem.

2. Everybody else is furiously improvising, so you can too
Show me an expert and I’ll show you a charlatan. FAKE IT ‘TIL YOU MAKE IT, amigo.
21 year old lifestyle design guru? Hell yeah! Fat, unemployed life-coach? Why not? Homeopathy professional? Whatever, bring it on!
Choose your path, and then Act As If You’re Wearing A Cape.

3. Nobody thinks about you as much as you think about you
Really. They don’t. For example, I’m not thinking about you now. But I bet you are.

4. It’s OK to piss people off
But if you’re pissing everybody off, all the time, it’s time to stop being a dick.

5. Aspiration is for suckers
 
6. Nobody tells all the truth, all the time
So lower your expectations of people. When put in a spot, people fib.
We men lie about our alcohol consumption all the time.
When we’re young and say we had six beers, we probably only had three. Nowadays, if we say we only had three beers, you can be sure it was closer to six. It doesn’t mean we don’t love you

7. Life doesn’t get better – only your perception of life improves
There was a little man with a lame left leg. He lived on the outskirts of town in a tumble-down house. He had a hole in his roof, and water would come in day and night. His lame left leg meant he couldn’t go out to work, so he survived on the charity of others, who would give him scraps of food. Sometimes he would go for two days and nights with nothing to eat.  One day, the town council decided to fix his roof. The little man with the lame left leg became the happiest person you have ever seen. He was so grateful to be dry that he would smile and sing for the passersby all day long.
***
There was a healthy, beautiful woman who lived in a huge house with six servants and manicured lawns. But alas, she was permanently angry, because Jeannine, that bitch, had told her that her handbag was so last season.

8. Your family comes first, but not to the detriment of everything else
You want to go out with the girls? Tell your husband to make his own dinner. And gents, you don’t need permission for that once-a-year trip to Vegas, you just need to communicate it properly.

9. You’re wrong as often as you’re right
So don’t dwell on either.

10. Men should never wear wigs