ANGELI

Angelì [Italiain version on FORUM]

 

[Inspired by  tales told to me by my Calabrian grandmother]

 

 

 

Angelì, Angelì
Do you see me
Silently
Breaking through the morning mist.
Across fields kissed by Winter’s chill.
Now I stand under your window
Never far
Always near to you.
Angelì do you hear me whisper your name.
Do you hear me cry.
I don’t remember
When did I die.
Angelì
Do you see me still
In our son.
In his eyes.  In his smile.
In the gold of Nordic lands.
I wait for you my Angelì.
When your day comes
We will dance together
You and I
Across a diamond midnight sky.
I will show you the way
Angelì
To Heaven’s realm.
To Eternity.  

 

·         Angelì – pronounced ON-GEL-LEE

 

·         Nota bene: Many  Southern Italian peasant women of the early 20th century were generally iin arranged and disillusioned marriages. No romantic novels to read for escape. Only tales of undying love. This “poem” is dedicated  in reality to my paternal grandmother’s sister, Angelina, who lost her husband  – and only true love—during the Great War. Married at 16 and left with 3 young children  in 1917 in the harsh mouintan regions of southern Calabria [La Sila]