Standing with Ukraine

PERENNIAL HYMN

They fell
Your children, your brothers, your beloved ones, they fell
In the beautiful land where they were born
Giving old words a renewed meaning:
Nation, native land, motherland
Cradle of dreams and freedom
New matrix of the Free World.

None will be forgotten
None fell in vain
Vain and evil was the beast that torn your land.
Soon, the fog of dark times will be washed away by your tears
By your rebuilding arms and your faith in a greater destiny
Soon your ancestors will see the reward for their sacrifice
Soon, the sunflowers will shine as a perennial hymn
To all and each of you
Brave heroes of Ukraine!

All pain and suffering leaves a footprint in memory
A gap in the path of each lifetime
A broken bridge in the soul.
Don’t erase any footprint
They are monuments to the fallen and the living
Fill the gap with your strength
Rebuild the bridge with the endless love for your land.

Your unbeatable courage, soldiers of light, will be the crown of peace
Your wise determination, leaders of the just, will live beyond victory
Your arms, mother, will regain the will and the warmth
Your eyes, children, will see the new rising of Ukraine!

São Ludovino, 1/5/2022

Slava Ukraini! Heroyam slava!

Мойсей Бондаренко|Someone you loved cover|Ukraine war.

(Moisey Bondarenko, violin)

Inner Conversation

     Another part of the old project of illustrating my own writing. Again, this was put into a video with pictures. But in other experiences I just used photographs and / or drawings. This is probably the tiniest story I ever wrote in my life.

The Sweet Guide

     The guide is the one who goes in the front or the one who follows at our side?

     Here’s a very short “poem-story” that emerged from a simple image of a duck swimming in a lake.

—Let me follow your shadow! – said one duck.

—Whose shadow will I follow if you follow behind me? – asked the other duck.

—Then, let us follow side by side, our shadows will be together – said the first.

—We will be as one, knowing that we are two.

—Let’s make the way together even if you are faster than me.

São Ludovino, 29/9/2013 – 1:07 a.m.

The Sweet Guide - Poem-Story & photography by São Ludovino.

Everlasting Wings

     This is part of an old project: illustrate my own words with pictures by me and by others. Initially, this and other poems and stories were inspired by a single image. That close connection between the words and those images still make sense. But the idea is to recreate and adopt new perspectives. This project contains old and new pieces of writing.

Until the Edge

Among a thousand poppies,
There was a poppy
That was pretending to be alone.
Her way of being alone
Consisted only in looking always
In the same direction,
The same horizon,
The same portion of the infinite sky.

Among a thousand poppies,
The lonely poppy
Was training her red chalice wings to fly.
“Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow” (she sang)
“Why then, oh why can’t I?”

Above the thousand poppies
The clouds were moving
But the untouchable blue remained.
And the lonely poppy kept singing
“Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby”.

The thousand poppies were withering
In the blazing sun.
The red turned purple and fell on the ground.
Only one poppy remained.
The lonely poppy keeps singing
And training her red chalice wings:
“Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.”

In the summer fields no poppy remains.
The rarefied clouds came back.
Up above a red bird disappears over the edge
Of the same untouchable blue horizon…

São Ludovino, 29/9/2013 – 3:09 a.m.

Until the Edge - Poem-Story & photography by São Ludovino.