The Reality of Hope by Claudio Pozzani

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Claudio Pozzani was born in 1961 in Genova (Italy).

Poet, narrator and musician, he is appreciated in Italy and abroad for his poetic performances in the most important international literary and poetry festivals.

His poems have been translated and published into more than 10 languages and have appeared in important anthologies and magazines of international contemporary poetry.

Since 1995 Pozzani is the director of  the Genova International Poetry Festival, the oldest and biggest poetry event in Italy. He has also created and organized several poetry events in Europe (Belgium, France, Japan, Finland, Germany) and the House of Poetry in Genova,

His last CD (poetry and music) “La Marcia dell'ombra”, has been in the top 20 of the Italian independent radio charts. His most recent book is "Spalancati spazi - Poesie 1995 - 2016" (Passigli editori).

In 2019 the director Fabio Giovinazzo made the film "L'Anima nel ventre" based on his poems.

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THE REALITY OF HOPE

by Claudio Pozzani

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Come

let's camp out here

The night

will toss its web of frost and stars

upon us

but we'll know how to shrink

clinging to each other

to wriggle out of its tangle

Hold me tight as if tomorrow

depended on your arms

I've had enough

of sticky, warring

shadows

and hearts hung on hooks

or crumbled into a bitter soup of regrets.

Come

and don't look back

in this barbarous night

with an oblique wind

that shoots spit and pins

into our faces,

set sail your worries

slide your head

along the calm sea of my chest

among the long, blond waves

and half-open lips,

mold your sleep

to my heartbeats and snores

waiting for the wide open spaces

beyond your lids.

We are the Lacoön

of our own crushed dreams,

against the slithering snakes of jealousy

hurled at us like chained balls.

Come

let's stay here

a little longer and forever

in this temporary eternity

and let's hide so they won't ever find us

not even tomorrow

when hordes of light

will descend from the sun's slopes

to colonize the shadows

and pave the mysteries

and sterilize the alchemies

and demolish our barricade of embraces

that has no need of questions

to be an answer.

translation: Suzanne Branciforte