ADA RIZZO

 

 

Pure Gold

(Ode to Imperfect Women)

 

In the hearts of imperfect women

beats a universe of scars and moons,

woven from shattered dreams

that gather themselves again in silence,

like fallen stars rediscovered.

They love their bodies

keepers of secrets,

of cycles and storms,

of soft petals and thorns.

They are vessels of primal resilience,

growing strength from pain,

rooted deep like ancient trees.

Their hands stitch the sky,

a fabric of mistakes and rebirths

that wraps itself around the world.

Their lips whisper Respect and Justice

between the folds of a silence that screams.

Their eyes cradle seeds of hope

and the fire of those who refuse to yield.

They stand firm in Mother Earth,

feet carrying the weight of ancestral stories,

while they dance in the firelight of foremothers.

Their voices rise for sisters and daughters

who break the chains of injustice.

Imperfect women yet dazzling

celebrating life, their passion,

the right to own themselves,

their embrace defying the world’s deafening silence.

Imperfect women,

they are fire and water,

earth and a sky of stars

giving birth to light and life.

They shine like twenty-four carat gold,

souls of women who calm every storm

and turn it into a rainbow.

Ada Rizzo, September 2, 2025, Jesolo

 

Don’t Call Me A Victim

(a poem for the women who don’t return)

 

They found me

with open hands,

like someone still waiting

for a caress that never comes.

My heart was stitched

with fishing line

it held against the waves,

but not against your voice.

You said “you’re mine”

like one speaks to an object,

like one claims a body

that no longer has a name.

But I was a storm,

a mother, a sister, a lover,

a word that burns

on your silent lips.

You extinguished my gaze,

but I live in the eyes

of every woman building her future.

Now I walk barefoot

among the stars that resemble me,

and every woman who falls

carries me with her.

Don’t call me a victim.

I am the wound that speaks,

the bleeding rose,

the voice that remains.

Ada 29 Ottobre 2025

 

ADA RIZZO

 

ADA RIZZO, writer, poet, freelance journalist, cultural promoter, Peace Ambassador, Counselor, Mindfulness Facilitator, was born in Sicily (Italy) in 1960. Her life is built on solid roots and traditional values. Optimistic, cheerful, curious, and creative, she is passionate about art and psychology. She loves cooking and adores music. After a career in sales at an American multinational company, she decided to reinvent herself. For several years she has also been a Life Counselor with a humanistic-relational approach and a Mindfulness Facilitator. She has been involved for about 20 years and is currently engaged in humanitarian projects and volunteering in Kenya. In 2021 she published her first novel, strongly autobiographical, entitled Did I Want the Twelve-Heel?, which received an Honorable Mention at the Intercontinental Literary Prize “Le Nove Muse.” In 2022 she published her second novel Iris Glass Wings, winner of the Alda Merini National Poetry and Narrative Prize 2024-2025, a book that addresses the delicate theme of eating disorders (DCA). In 2023 she published her third novel Ninety Beats per Minute, a true story that addresses the delicate theme of heart transplantation, for which she was awarded the Jury Prize at the International Literary Prize Cygnus Aureus 2024. In 2024 she published Twenty-Four Carats, dealing with the theme of gender-based violence; a work awarded at the International Literary Art Prize La Via dei Libri, the International Lord Byron Prize 2024, the International Literary Art Prize – to say no to violence against women – Il Canto di Dafne 2024, National Argentario Prize 2024 & Caravaggio. In 2025 she published The Enchantment, Emotions and Reflections, a cross-over combining prose and poetry, aimed at raising awareness on crucial issues such as Peace, Human Rights, Childhood, Inclusion, Gender Violence, Justice.