Five Poems by Joseph A. Farina

 

telephoto

your shadow twice your length
announces evening's fall
the class awaits your entrance
the golden hour caresses you
in your element where it began
the darkness arrives after you leave
warmth reaching out to you fails
apparent now it never could
the love of light and shadow
against the kneeling sun
frames your face haloed
untouchable in any way
except by the photographer's lens 

 

Primaveral

Warmed by the first caress of spring's hands
Wintered fields yield their frozen moisture
Rising like Ghosts from their frosted shrouds
Their landscape dotted with small blackbirds
They rise and swirl land again and fly away
by unanimous consent, a grey period
Against the rising fog and are gone
Leaving fields of opaque dreams
Amid misted spectres of winter's last breath

farfalla

February in Palm Springs
April in Amersterdam
Tuscany received her twice
Vienna was a carriage ride
Greece a hymn to Helios
she has sailed the mare nostrum
and Northern inside passages
slept in the heart of Maltas' bedrock
Rome's chic avenues and venetian canals
shared their dolce vita
Istanbul entertained her at Hagia Sophia
quenched the high afternoon heat
with Trevi's acqua potable
offered prayers at Peter's altar
sipped the wine from every continent
trekked the still wild Savanah
landing only long enough
for her wings to renew
and furl out once more 

 

In praise of shadow

i recognize shadow
i have been
within its folds
deep in meditation
withholding the sunrise
fogs passion as love
embraces pain as joy
suspended in its praise
it is our only promise
of eternity
all futures hold its majesty
light only betrays
turns us into unbeings
eyes to bright new beginnings
when history shows only
darkness and betrayal 

 

Shiver

Anesthetized by cold
a shiver stumbled
through my brain
evoking
a memory of warmth -
of a scarf
you gave me
one silent winter long ago
the one you made
with your own hands
in colours
that so mattered then

the way it felt
upon my neck
your woven caress
our last embrace
a warmth that never leaves
lies dormant -
until needed -
as on this cold and bitter day

Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. An internationally award winning poet. Several of his poems have been published in  Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, The Chamber Magazine, Ascent ,Subterranean  Blue  and in   The Tower Poetry Magazine, Inscribed, The Windsor Review, Boxcar Poetry Revue, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and appears in many anthologies including:  Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent,  Canadian Italians at Table,  Witness  from Serengeti Press and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century . He has had poems published in the U.S. magazines   Mobius, Pyramid Arts, Arabesques, Fiele-Festa, Philadelphia Poets and   Memoir (and) . He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles   and   The Ghosts of Water Street.