JOSEPH A FARINA

 

 

Pilgrimage

 

I could become rooted in this spot

forever gazing at the dancing sky

it's infinite ecstasies of clouds

the rhythm of sun and shadows

under its blue silent pavilion

waiting for the golden swirl of twilight

the mosaic horizons of colours

the darkening shadows on rooftops

Swallows emerging, foraging in flight

rippling in the irradiations of heat

ascending into their kingdom

leaving me in my autumnal delight

 

The Scent Of Lemons

The Taste Of Wine

 

the island

mythologized

over years

fantasized in travelogues

calls the children

of the Diaspora back

 

they search

for a paradise

of lost Mezzogiorno’s

described by antecedents

of lemon groves and

mountain vineyards

long ago abandoned

 

they speak

of villages and ancestors

(mispronounced)

like a mantra

 

they are no longer indigenous

only tourists

seeking identity

through lost familial names

sounding Sicilian

but with souls

too long anglicized

to be accepted

too long assimilated

to belong

 

Syndrome

 

I have at times been one

possessed of fire and darkness

in the black hours courting evil

in sight of the silent sacred houses

and the fearsome moonlit woods

mumbling words only I understood

made signs of earth and stone

survived the madness and returned

ashamed at times and wanting blood

I have been both within and out the circle

and have kissed the serpent’s tongue

 

JOSEPH A FARINA

 

JOSEPH A FARINA is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. An award winning, push cart nominee, internationally published poet, his works published in many poetry magazines notably Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Windsor Review, and appears in the anthologies   Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent, Canadian Italians at Table, Witness and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century. He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles   and   The Ghosts of Water Street and an E-book Sunsets in Black and White. And his latest book, The beach, the street and everything in between.