VALENTINA MELONI

VALENTINA MELONI

FOREST

I was a leaf that swings in the wind

I was the branch from which the words hang

I was the long-haired fern

The fern that embraces dreams

I was the green that enchants

The trail that goes on

the dark, I was the bark

made of bread and scratches

and tiny footprints

I was the light, the sunshine twinkling

among the branches of trees

The hope of a flight

The bee dancing on flowers

I was a little bird

A nightingale that sings

and does not let itself be seen

I was the wind. I was the wind, yes

which passes on the heads, which sounds

I was the rain

the thunderous thunderstorm

I was the uncertain step

and the silent voice

I was the whisper of a child

speaking to his angels

I was the ground beaten and turned

I was the swan lifting its neck and flying

I was the little sleeping acorn

A seed hanging on its pappus

I was the proud look of the wolf

I was the forgiveness

I was the sky hidden by a cloud

I was the cry of the owl

A butterfly, I was all

I was all that I am

I was the secret revealed

I was what you call mother

I was the blow of the world, a breath

The deepest breath of soul

THE ANGEL AND THE COSMOS

He and the cosmos were there

to touch the bottom of the silence.

A tree is the world

which nourishes roots in the child.

The child is the tree

throwing new gems

and tending branches to heaven.

The tree and the child

were there to touch

the bottom of the silence.

No one knew what they said.

The secrets lie hidden in the thick of the woods.

The child who was speaking to trees became man.

The tree has hidden the child in its bark.

Slowly it aged.

No one will ever know what it was listening to.

The tree and man are still here

to touch the bottom of the silence.

What they say no one knows.

Maybe that's all their secret:

listen, lose the leaves, the years

feel to live, tell what it is

what it was, what it will be.

A tree is the world

that sprouts into the heart of man.

Man is the tree

which leaves the leaves

and let them go to the wind.

The angel and the cosmos are always here

to touch the bottom of the silence.

THE LITTLE GIRL TALKING TO THE TREES

Someone wonders if ever exists

the little girl talking to the trees.

She has hidden a dream in the tin box

The letter has remained untouched, and the dream,

who knows it? Someone wonders

what the little girl talking to the trees said.

A dream made of tin and wind roots

Here! She peeps out behind the trunk.

Someone wonders if the little girl

talking to the trees ever existed.

I found her tin box

intact buried under the tree in the garden

When I opened it –  trembling hands –

all the words have flown out

A fall of autumn like the leaves

of the hippocastan, even they have gone far

They are withered in the dream

There is no one to listen anymore

Only the tree stand there waiting for

the leaves going to born, for the coming – sooner or later –

Of the tin box girl, because she cannot be her,

the one who holds it in hands

If she no longer knows how to play ...

If she cannot listen, she cannot be

the little girl talking to the trees ...

if she is no longer be able to doing it ... or yes?

VALENTINA MELONI

VALENTINA MELONI, also known with the heteronym of n a n i t a , was born in Rome (Italy) in 1976. Graduating from classical maturity she also studied classical dance and piano. She has been writing poetry and tales for several years. She lives in Valdichiana since 2007 and leads a rather retracted life in contact with woods and all the natural beauties that surround and inspire her. She is currently writing fairy tales and stories for children, she is dedicated to poetry and writes reviews for specialized magazines. She has published for poetry: Nei Giardini di Suzhou (In the gardens of Suzhou, FusibiliaLibri, 2015), Le regole del controdolore (The rules against pain, Temperino Rosso, 2016), Alambic (Progetto Cultura, 2017), and a bilingual haiku collection Nanita (Otata's Bookshelf 2017) which will appear in the annex to the American international magazine Otata. For childhood she wrote Storia di Goccia (Drop History, Librido, 2017), illustrated fairy tale and Nanuk and the spider Alvaro, Nanuk and the tree of desires, two stories illustrated by Sara Stradi with a special high readability project that also makes them suitable for children with learning disabilities.  Her texts were translated into English, Chinese, and Japanese and appeared in international magazines and anthologies. In the coming years will also be published this three poetry collections: Millimeters, Under the skin – landai – rebels couples, Sonorous body – Hypothetical Self, and Blooms a bilingual photo-poetry book about feminine. She is essays and reviews columns redactor in Diwali- contaminated magazine and interviews redactor in Euterpe Literature Magazine where she also cares for the haiku column Komorebi. She also is a jury member of some literary competitions. She writes on other literary and cultural magazines such as L’area di Broca, LaRecherche and her eco-poetry and deep ecology blogs. In 2007 she founded the group/blog Those Who Talk to the Trees and the blog Poems on the Tree, where she draws public attention to themes of deep ecology and respect for nature through the publication of eco deep-poems. Poetry, spirituality, ecology, trees and nature are the fundamental themes of her poetry. She, also, followed poetic-photographic projects on feminicide and gender-based violence gaving birth to a collection (Eva) that has already won some awards and will be released shortly.