Leone D'Ambrosio

A poet mixing powerful lyricism and modern poetry, his book Non é ancora l'addio www.azimutlibri.com (Its not the parting yet. Azimut books) is a tribute to his father in life and the extreme anguish felt at his death. I was honored to translate the book in English. Here are some poems.

IT'S NOT THE PARTING YET

Don't close your eyes
it's not the parting yet,
I'll count the hours
that are missing to your farewell.
Don't ask me
where pain resides,
I'd answer
it's in most live sleep.
Winter has a closed door
and a brief day
it doesn't know how to contain
my steps
that postpone your death
until tomorrow.

PAIN SPOILS THE DAY

In artificial canals and in channels
so among voices at home
pain spoils the day
to those bringing drinking water.
In the upturned wicker basket
it hides at the most certain distance
so I may surprise it
as a magnet attracting to itself
every iron shaving.

WITHOUT KNOCKING

I will continue to call you father
with comets set apart on the roof
not to trouble your sleep.
The sea where you were born is bereft
and you mother will dress in mourning
its eternal fullness.
If you need to go, go,
illness is a cross
that arrives without knocking.

SCENT OF MUST

There's unexpected scent of must
the air is light with October's sun.
The ground is an announced landing
and you are no longer its watcher.
The compassionate olive tree grows
with a plea to the sky
and in the crack of the wall
the vineyard innervates its root.
No one ever returned
to the orange orchard,
the work around too much
and the ilex I knew
is closed in your hand.

FROM WHICH WINDOW

The Seleucian sky
shoulders the evening.
From which window
do I hear myself being called,
you're word here and there
never resigning itself.
Unknown to every cloud,
the wind that fills the voids
understands me
without any hurry.

A BREATH WITHOUT DIFFICULTY

Remember to bring comfortable shoes,
a handkerchief with all the fears,
the pension booklet
and three sugared almonds,
those from our old tree.
The walk to the end of the sky is long
and less that the joyful whistle of the nightingale.
Death is an evening thought,
a breath without difficulty.

ALL THAT REMAINS IS TO WAIT

From the highest peaks
a faint rending of evening
finds its breath among the fertile
stars of the heavens.
All that remains is to wait
for a new light to be
relief to the tender bitterness.
Grapes are ripe in my town
and the land over there isn't moving.

IF ONE WERE TO DIE FOREVER

The house has some mute balconies,
pain is hidden in sleep
and no one ever visits you again
if one dies forever.
The quiet moon tells of you,
heaven at the last step sways
if your shoe stumbles
before entering.


You shut the light
and closed the front door,
but don't leave

What ecosystem? Cheap ways of denial.

Drink mercury polluted water from the nearby coal powered power plant.

Have Yogi and Bubu advertise setting fire to National Parks so that the next rainstorm can provoke one hell of a mudslide.

Understand the correlation with the possible extinction of bluefin tuna and the $5.00 cost of tins, but then think it's as expensive as an aphrodisiac.

Have cellphones self-destruct within months of purchase and dump the whole heap of bad electronics on the road to the next African safari.

Petition to live next to a toxic dump and a nuclear plant.

Bizarre sentences one should never believe

"Trust me. I'm a republican."
"As Tea Party members we have football meets regularly and all are included."
"Don't blame me. Blame Mother Theresa."
"We are liberals. So what if we believe in the death penalty?"
"That Dr. Kevorkian is a real nice guy"

10 ways to balance a budget

Save supermarket receipts and pass them off as new;
Reuse toilet paper;
Borrow pens instead of buying them;
Listen to other people's radio;
Drop your soiled clothes in other people's laundry;
Repackage old tea bags and return to the supermarket;
Freeze cost of living increases in social security (done already)
Penalize those with no Obama health Insurance 2,000 dollars (done already)
Have House and Senate skateboard to Congress;
Charge the entire United States an underwear tax.

Health Care escapes:

Hoping you never need any for as long as you live;
Leaving by the front door as soon as it's deemed you need ridiculously expensive testing when you're on Medicare or Medicaid;
Insisting that there be no merger between doctors or hospitals so as to keep expenses low for private health care;
Leaving the American Medical Association behind after it asked governmental officials to "provide explicit exceptions to anti-trust laws";
To do the same to the Federation of American Hospitals which is requesting a waiver in fraud and abuse investigations.

See also The New York Times, November 20, 2010 Consumer risks feared as health law spurs mergers. By Robert Pear.

HALL OF SHAME:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, charged with unlawful coercion, sexual molestation and rape in Sweden, is facing a European arrest warrant and one involving Interpol, if he leaves the European Union. The charges are denied and believed to be political retaliation.

HALL OF SHAME

12 arrested for protesting the don't ask don't tell ruling on openly gay and lesbian members of the military. They had chained themselves on the gates in front of the White House.

In an effort to support the Republican outcries for more budget cuts, the decision is veering toward raising the retirement age of Oprah watchers and Keith Richards' autobiography readers exclusively.

After comparing Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden in conjunction with his book sales, George Bush blamed the entire Academy Award team who awarded the filmmaker in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine for not wanting to date the 72 virgins in paradise.

Pirates of pens

Just a tiny notice:

This is a new re-edition of an old blog, done by necessity because of malicious pirating. On this and telegrafite.blog.espresso.repubblica.it/telegrafite, my other blog in Italian, people were unjustifiably misrepresented. My apologies.
I have no idea how this could have occurred. An extensive case of identity theft that has me shopping at TJMAXX and buying Sprint phones.A change of passwords and a better anti virus seem to have helped here.

The best bet is to keep yourself to the breakingnewts you see here. The infiltration was so thorough that none of the old blog was salvageable, with the exception of my records.I will try to access old posts regularly to see if there are any alterations. What is written so far is the true spirit of breakingnewts and telegrafite and will continue.Enjoy the blog!

The rash of child kidnappings on West Fenimore Street.

While this blog was suffering from turbulent pirating, Long Island kids were on the growl. Teeth were gnashed; my yoga wear was deemed obscene and giggled about( I lived alone, I was necessarily odd); my mailbox knocked off its post, the front of the house pelleted with flour and eggs in a retro tribute to holloween the elementary school's play with me cast in turn as either Jason or Carrie before the bloodbath, the front door's screen door kicked until indented by some individual grappling his loins and playing a constant game of I'm not getting off your property, taunts using my name when I had never introduced myself to them. When the police was called, there were false claims made of the fear I had strewn in these high schoolers'pitter patter hearts, while, in my presence alone, there seemed to be an extreme sense of ease at hoping to strike out as glee club hair conditioner worshipping rebels. How they got close enough to know whether I use hair conditioner or not is beyond me, just as arcane the reference is. Be that as it may.All this against the intruder, big notably (necessarily)old bad (necessarily)unkept (necessarily)afraid and lonely me.It was such a safe neighborhood before my temporary access to it.

Time has flown by, incidents forgotten, luckily for them. I've had to erase the entire blog for its altered content and so far so good with the new posts. I've just seen the ? of breakingnewts2 and 3 (the non sequel) and can only wish that along with its July 2007 repetitive consults (beyond me)they may all be in a better place by sometime next year. With adequate help.

The Supreme Court chooses to sustain the Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule preventing the openly gay from joining the military while its constitutionality is being challenged in the lower courts. Their decision was taken just because there may be some confusion by way of clothing as to which faith the self-confessed person belonged to: military or gay. A sailor suit was thought of having spoken too much and was sent to the cleaners' for a pressing.

1,001 ways to spot an illegal immigrant

Shoot a flare in the middle of incoming traffic;
Their pant cuffs are short and they're innies;
They read the newspaper right side up;
Mention the "drug problem down there";
Some still chew gum, not tobacco;
Can't pronounce ethnic cooking;
If they don't look different than you they're wearing a tanga;
Mention free distribution of green cards for the holidays;
Begin a conversation including the word 'caudillo' in the first sentence;
Ask them if they know the way to Myanmar.

Republican blocking of Health Bill

In an effort to block the application of the penalty for those with no health insurance, Republicans are thinking of cutting off IRS finances,which would otherwise monitor the situation.
Not only that, but they're planning on enticing a laissez faire policy with several other lures: a mud wrestling match between Lady Gaga and Courtney Love, the winner dates the non health insurance payer;
A trip to Tijuana with spectators' seats for the local drug shootout;
A creationist's tour of the Bible Belt's garden of Eden complete with a Burmese python and a pelican still stained by the oil spill in Louisiana;
A mass of plastic bottles in all backyards non returned or recycled since the refund benefits mostly homeless collectors and if God wanted to recycle he'd make the bottles vanish;
A framed article citing Obama's tax break for the very rich at $61,000.00 with the Republican proposal of $370,000.00 instead circled by rays of light;
An autographed copy of an unauthorized biography of George Bush;
A souvenir of a mosque, surrounded with a belt of explosives, with the writing: Didn't go to Iraq, and this is what I got;
A small piece of material from Elvis'jumpsuits, with the writing see you soon.

President Obama invites Republicans to dinner to discuss the placement of cruets on the dinner table, whether there should be a dueling banjo affair with Medvedev for the nuclear proliferation debate, and whether Michelle should go blonde. In the past response to the invitations would dwindle on much more paltry subjects as the creation of job losses and the cutting of social security benefits, both of interest to Republicans, who would not share and share alike. The president, feeling lonesome, extended some invitations strategically to Thanksgiving but was turned down by claims that everyone had a family to care for and celebrate with. Always the fighter,Mr. Obama thought Christmas dinner a sure draw due to the promise of Christmas presents but he was also turned down, rumors spread by Republicans that Democratic coffers could only afford sock puppets instead of video games to take home to the children.