Where Luso-Afro-Brazilian voices cross oceans and remake the world in verse.
Onde as vozes luso-afro-brasileiras cruzam oceanos e recriam o mundo em verso.
Lótus Retornada por RoseAngelina Baptista
Ah doce exílio,
a mim prescrito
nas areias grossas
de Iperoig,
esse escuro manto
sereno Índico me escuda
n’alvorada da Floridourada
quando sento em Cal-Mar-ia,
uma corrente estala e sobe
da peanha de três anjinhos,
me traz um calor na espinha
tudo fica puro-igual
O céu uni vazio.
***
Divino Mestre que andas
com olhos voltados pra cima!
Parece que onde andas
as flores de lótus rebentam, brotam,
as lótus tontas,
no enleio se levantam, cantam,
as lótus descalças, de botas,
rodopiam, requebram e sambam.
Este quadro “Poema à Virgem Maria” foi pintado por Benedito Calixto em 1901. Nele, Anchieta (1534-1597) escreve o poema na praia de Iperoig, em latim 5.786 versos entitulado “De Beata Virgine dei Matre Maria” que foi publicado póstumo em Lisboa no ano de 1663.
Returning Lotus by RoseAngelina Baptista
Ah, sweet exile,
a blessing passed down
on the coarse sands
of Iperoig,
where a Jesuit once
wrote prayers into silence.
Now, beneath a quiet, lucid sky,
I feel the fullness of this calm.
At golden dawn in Floridourada,
seated in stillness,
a current stirs, snaps, then rises
from the pedestal
of three small angels.
It climbs my spine with warmth.
Everything becomes whole.
The sky unfolds into unity.
O Divine Master,
you who walk
with eyes turned skyward,
where you pass,
lotus blossoms open,
bursting into bloom.
Dizzy lotuses,
rising in rapture, singing.
Barefoot lotuses,
dancing in borrowed boots,
they spin, they sway, they samba.
RoseAngelina Baptista is a bilingual poet of the Lusosphere (Luso-Afro-Brazilian world) with multicultural heritages and experiences, living in Florida.
O original deste poema foi publicado em 2022 pela Oxalá Editora de Mário GM dos Santos, São Gonçalves, foi a curadora dessa IV antologia de poetas lusófonos na diáspora.
Vision
To illuminate the poetic threads that bind Portugal, Africa, Brazil, and their diasporas into a shared fabric of memory, resilience, and creation. Through Filamentos, poetry becomes a vessel that carries ancestral voices across oceans, sustaining cultural identities while opening new horizons of belonging.
Mission
- To gather and celebrate poets of the Luso-Afro-Brazilian worlds, including their diasporas, offering a space where their voices can echo freely and be heard across borders.
- To translate and amplify this poetry so that the saudade of one shore becomes the recognition of another, fostering cultural exchange and solidarity.
- To affirm poetry as both archive and prophecy: a record of displacement, memory, and survival, and a vision of futures rooted in justice, freedom, and imagination.
- To connect readers and listeners across continents, ensuring that the literature of the Portuguese-speaking worlds continues to inspire, heal, and transform.
We thank the Luso-American Education Foundation for its support of PBBI at Fresno State.
Filamentos (artes e letras) 