Poem "Autumn" (Autunno) by Vincenzo Cardarelli (1949)

Garden in Autumn by Vincent Van Gogh, ca. 1889

From the collection "Opere Complete" 1962, from "Vincenzo Cardarelli: The Forgotten amongst the Great. A Collection of the Best Poems by Vincenzo Cardarelli, Translated in English," available as e-book on Amazon Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, on NOOK Book, on Kobo, and as printed, traditional edition through Lulu.   

 

Autumn  (Autunno)

Autumn. We felt its coming

in the wind of August,

in the rains of September

torrential and weeping

and a shiver ran through the earth

which now, bare and sad,

welcomes a bewildered sun. 

Now passes and declines,

in this Autumn progressing

with unspeakable slowness,

the best time of our life

and lengthily bids us farewell.

From the Collection "Poesie," 1949, by Vincenzo Cardarelli

From the collection "Opere Complete" 1962, from "Vincenzo Cardarelli: The Forgotten amongst the Great. A Collection of the Best Poems by Vincenzo Cardarelli, Translated in English," available as e-book on Amazon Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, on NOOK Book, on Kobo, and as printed, traditional edition through Lulu.
 

"Amongst All Things I Cherish You Most," from "Midnight 30, American Poems"

Claude Monet, Autumn Effect at Argenteuil, oil on canvas, 1873, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK

Amongst All Things I Cherish You Most

Amongst all things I cherish you most:

silent, deserted tracks,

paths winding steeply up

to the hazy tops, murmurs of footsteps

muffled by silent slopes,

ascensions to sylvan hermitages.

When the first snow

shuts all man within their weary

dwellings, then even the timid fox

sticks its head out of the woods,

sniffing with its pointed nose the air

in the scant November dusk.  

Similarly a vagrant finds some peace

and no longer despairs in his wandering,

when the blackening earth closes the corolla

of the horizon, and like ancient weeping,

the oblivious, sooty sky

is a mute blanket, unutterable.      

(The Appalachians, November 2013)

"Midnight 30, American Poems," is available as e-book on Amazon Kindle, iBookstore, NOOK Book, Kobo, and Lulu.

Jersey Blues: Selected Poems

A still from the film version of 'On The Road' 

 

"...Like a pilgrim, or a spiritual vagrant, crisscrossing the country—always rolling on the very fabric of the continent: westwards and eastwards, to the eternal oceans, and from the northern vast plains down through the Appalachian, to the deep recesses of the lowlands, to the swamps—infallibly enough I would always return to my dwelling in Princeton. Many a time the lonely night was devoted to the contemplation of the moon of New Jersey, as I licked the wounds of a sore soul. I always wondered, how different that pale, ghostly circle of a moon was, from the one I encountered elsewhere above the magnificent land that I had been scampering about, and from the lost moon of my childhood. Yet, with adulthood—or maturity—seeing at last the rise and fall of earthling matters, I would flinch, my heart recoiling, as from something unpleasant. Thus, through the jaundiced, estranged buoy in the sky, I would recall past memories, and hold out my quivering hand to reach over to the always-receding mysteries of existence..."

"Jersey Blues: Selected Poems", also available on iBookstore, NOOK Book, and Amazon Kindle.