Poem somewhere

There is a poem. A certain poem. I believe it was written from memories stored in the smallest drawers of your heart. Like an invisible jewelry box, an antique case, passed down from hand to hand, within the same family, by successive generations of women.

There is a poem. A poem somewhere where you left the dust of childhood games, the songs, the nursery rhymes. Everything that could suggest a world organized between dreams and their results. A world where tenderness was a window closing off the coldest wind of winter at that time.

There is a poem. I look for it in your gestures, now more restrained and reserved, in your voice, where the power of pauses insinuates itself, in the great gray cloud of today’s weather, where sadness has multiplied its seeds.

There is a poem. There must be a poem in a place that only you know. It may not be a poem yet, it may not have taken shape yet, but I sense that it exists, that it works, that it breathes, that it articulates itself between words and feelings, that it rises from the darkest and muddiest waters to a surface where clarity dictates its rule.

There is a poem. I pursue it eagerly every day, guided only by intuition and the instinct to judge your face as the face of that poem, its origin and its destiny, its strength, and its raison d’être.

There is a poem. I know it. I will write it from the clear punctuation of your gaze. Tomorrow. Or in a future tomorrow. On the day of your total revelation. In the place where, from your eyes, it is possible to install a harmony equal to the games of childhood when the world was organized between dreams and their results.

José do Carmo Francisco (translated by Diniz Borges)

Poema algures

Há um poema. Um certo poema. Julgo-o feito a partir de memórias sedimentadas nas mais pequenas gavetas do teu coração. Assim como um guarda-jóias invisível, um estojo antigo, passado de mão em mão, na mesma família, por sucessivas gerações de mulheres.

Há um poema. Um poema algures onde deixaste o pó das brincadeira da infância, os jogos, as cantigas, as lengalengas. Tudo aquilo que poderia sugerir um mundo organizado entre os sonhos e os seus resultados. Um mundo onde a ternura era uma janela a fechar o vento mais frio do Inverno desse tempo.

Há um poema. Procuro-o nos teus gestos hoje mais comedidos e reservados, na tua voz onde se insinua a força das pausas, a grande nuvem cinzenta do tempo de hoje onde a tristeza fez a sua sementeira multiplicada.

Há um poema. Deve haver mesmo esse poema num lugar que só tu sabes. Pode não ser ainda poema, pode não ter ainda forma mas eu pressinto que ele existe, funciona, respira, articula-se entre as palavra e os sentimentos, sobe das águas mais escuras e lodosas para uma superfície onde a limpidez dita a sua regra.

Há um poema. Persigo-o ansioso todos os dias apenas guiado pela intuição e pelo instinto de julgar o teu rosto o rosto desse poema, sua origem e seu destino, sua força e sua razão de ser.

Há um poema. Eu sei. Hei-de escrevê-lo a partir da límpida pontuação do teu olhar. Amanhã. Ou num amanhã futuro. No dia da tua total revelação. No lugar onde, a partir dos teus olhos, seja possível instalar uma harmonia igual às brincadeiras da infância quando o mundo estava organizado entre os sonhos e os seus resultados.

José do Carmo Francisco

Our PBBI-Fresno State Project

Roots and Wings: Portuguese Poetry in Translation is a series that gathers voices from Portugal and introduces English language readers to a tradition at once intimate and expansive, where the rhythms of saudade echo across the Atlantic and the light of new lands refracts into verse.

Each poem is a journey: from the ancestral lands to homes throughout the English-speaking world, from classic poets who shaped a language to contemporary voices writing freedom, justice, and love into the present. Together, these poems are bridges between generations, geographies, and languages.

For Portuguese communities in North America, this series is a return to origins, a reclaiming of memory, and a celebration of their shared heritage. For all readers, it is an invitation to discover a lyrical heritage that speaks to the universal human condition — the desire for home, the ache of distance, and the wonder of words that, like wings, transcend borders.

This project is sponsored by the Luso-American Education Foundation.

Become a Member of LAEF -Use the link bellow

https://event.auctria.com/5e89c412-a9f1-41b4-a429-1fad5b362180/