Women Poetry: Claudia Piccinno, Italy

Exclusive: Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

Claudia Piccinno

A STONE SPHINX

If even in this moment of connection

You decided to go away

I would understand…

If I kept writing with harassing pen,

and this fact would harm you,

I would stop.

If a microbe drags you away

on other shores

where interlocutors are not allowed,

as a stone sphinx I would become a wall.

New words are falling down as raindrops

without any sense, in order to measure

this emptiness that speaks outstandingly

waiting for a verse.

***

FROM THE MONOLOGUE OF CASSANDRA

The Carnival looks out at the same piece of sea,

right there where I could have been happy.

Foam of alchemical feeling carried me away

from everyday pain.

But then I went back to the crime scene

with the little lantern in order to not hurt me .

And yet the same crazy splinters

of an omnipresent love they rip old wounds

And it was only fault of my steps

trained themselves to reiterate trust

in the most sterile of illusions,

that of being loved despite my weaknesses.

***

Claudia Piccinno  is the Continental Director for Europe in the World Festival Poetry, and represents Istanbul culture in Italy as Ambassador of Ist Sanat Art Association. She has to her credit 36 published poetry collections that also include translations by her into Italian. A recipient of several awards and prizes notably: Naji Naaman Prize-2018 and Global Icon Award 2020 by Writers Capital International Foundation. Her poem "In Blue" is played on a majolica stele posted on the seafront in Santa Caterina di Nardo (Le). She is European editor for the international literary magazine Papirus in Turkey and for Atunis Magazine international.

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