MARIA DO SAMEIRO BARROSO

 

Solitude

 

When solitude comes to you,

within the labyrinth, all the doors close

and open up; no one knows

how to decode the exit signs.

We forgot the ancient wisdom

of the haruspices reading

the bewilderment on the liver,

along with the maps of stars,

a long time ago.

 

Our astral path moves now over,

putting out the fire

in our brain circumvolutions.

The writing ink is sometimes

the only open spot

where we can find

our forgotten voice.

 

Within the labyrinth,

when you find the clue,

the silent paths and the precise

words converge,

and the sky shine

in the fragile volutes

of the immortality of time.

 

Nightingales

 

I know that all nightingales have already died

at the centre of the yellow landscapes

where dogs no longer howl, nor greyhounds cry.

I know that all the birds surrounded by

the fog are ephemeral comets.

 

Therefore, everything is sad, like a sick poem

hovering in a dark street.

Maybe the meteors still pulsate in my blood.

 

I know that all nightingales have died

and those wolves and men just fray

their deathly web.

And what can you do when the light falls apart?

What can you say when the heart

is shattered?

What can I say about solitude and love?

All I know is that my heart is full

of sun, light and dead nightingales.

 

The Navels Of Time

 

The poets live, dissipate

their energy,

but their radiance remains,

weaving the calendars of time

between gaps, incisions, images:

their words rolling

through the sidereal suffering

of the universe.

"God was nocturnal", someone said.

And that voice permeated the depts

of the earth, the emptiness of the body,

the navels of time.

The water would explode in the fire,

bursting fixed ideas,

and the cities would be large squares,

ruins oscillating in the enigma

of indecisiveness equated

between being and non-being.

 

MARIA DO SAMEIRO BARROSO

 

Dr MARIA DO SAMEIRO BARROSO (Portugal) is a medical doctor, a Germanist and a multilingual and awarded poet, translator, essayist, scholar and researcher in Portuguese and German Literature, Translations Studies and History of Medicine. She has authored over 40 books of poetry, translations and essays. Her poems are featured in over a hundred magazines and anthologies published in over thirty languages, resulting from his participation in poetry festivals and international activities.