Foundation of the Island
I
An illustrious Baron
without heraldry, without perception and fame
makes only his destiny:
to love, to honour his lady,
day and night sailing,
here and across all seas
the island that seeks and love that loves.
Noble, only in memories,
remembering his days
days that are histories,
histories that question
pasts and futures,
shipwrecks and other troubles,
discovering and happiness.
Discovered happiness
or even found, go
to every alerted ship
of inconstant masts,
masts that point ways
to lands of different wines.
This is the drunk boat.
Drunk baron, but still a Baron,
with stings consecrated;
between sea, sky and ground
speaks without being heard
to fish, men and birds,
mouths and peaks, to keys,
that once were in his hand.
II
The island no one found
because we all had it.
Even in the eyes, there was
a clear geography.
Even in this endless sea
any island we could find,
even without sea, without end,
without ground and without me.
Even without boats and destinies,
without waves and sands,
there is always a glass of sea
for a man to sail.
Nor found or seen
nor described or travelled,
there are adventures of departure
that never happened.
Arriving never arrived
I and the moving island.
Moving earth, unsure sky,
a world never discovered.
Signs of cannibals,
signs of sky and seaweeds,
here, a hidden world
moans in a lost shell.
Wind roses on forehead,
low water, plums, pearls,
Easter Sundays.
And this sailboat without sails!
After all: island of beaches.
Do you wish other discovering
besides these wind storms
such sadness, such happiness?
III
And after adverse geographies
and the wind going and coming through vines
and the sleepy stones and the leaves
and the birds in the intentional nests
and the ripe juices and rains
and everything within all those things
reflected on the faces of mirrors
seven times by seven renegades,
we reinvented the sea with its Columbus
and columba flying upon the waves,
and the waves involving the fish, and the fish
(o mysterious notable being)
with the ignored language of the books;
we recreated the sea for this island
which has “non-capes” to be folded
and grounds with sources of sweet water
to the ships with destiny to the East.
And we give that sea the passages
and the forever unfinished mappa mundi;
and we created the deck and the sailor
and around the sailor, the awkward legend
that he wants to spread amidst his savages.
We undertake with the help of coincidences
the journeys never planned,
without routes, without maps and astrolabes
and without letter to the King telling about the travel.
Sails and dices,
salty wood and the hagiology
and the faith burning clearly, on the flags
are enough.
And more: the half keel between shipwrecks
good enough to disperse the terrors.
And more: this lighthouse with large light beam
so strong that sinks the boat.
Here the sea: it was dead and reborn.
Here the sea: it was prodigal and I found it.
Its voice? O what healed voice!
What loud laments on these topsails!
What coconut trees moaning on their palms!
What an arriving of moonlights and hammocks!
Lets tell a story. But what story?
The story of a bad night journey.
(Jorge Mateus de Lima)
More Poetry from Jorge Mateus de Lima:
Jorge Mateus de Lima Poems based on Topics: Books, Faces, Sign & Symbol, Man, Belief & Faith, Love, Coincidence, Water, Birds, Memory, Kings & QueensReaders Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, World Poems, Sadness Poems, Faces Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Happiness Poems, Birds Poems, Fate & Destiny Poems, Belief & Faith Poems, Water PoemsBased on Keywords: perception, involving, cannibals, seaweeds, mundi, hammocks, pasts, coconut, shipwrecks, recreated, intentional
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