Gloria D. Gonsalves, also fondly known as Auntie Glo, is author of children’s stories and a poet. Her poetry has appeared in various literary magazines, journals, and anthologies in Africa, Europe, and the USA, including being featured five times by the National/Global Poetry Writing Month (Na/GloPoWriMo). She has four poetry collections: Even Flowers Know That Water is Useless Without Roots (2023), Let’s Go Walking in the Storm (2020), Let’s Go Dancing in the Light (2017), and Mists of Sense Require Fierce Poesy (2014). She is also the founder of WoChiPoDa.com, an initiative to instill the love of poetry in children.
OF WIND, SEA, AND LONG SILENCES
God of winds was gracious, I think,
until my kin and I came to this land.
For I know not of such a force
where one walked like a leaning tower
because the wind is a mighty power.
I watched in fear for a micronation—
Tavolara—the world’s smallest kingdom.
There amidst the ocean, proudly it stood
like a ship anchored on a cerulean port.
Blown away it wasn’t, but it did me.
Everywhere, yellow daisies waved
and greeted in a bow to the wind.
The trees bent, the branches flew,
and the sand overwhelmed with kisses.
Life continued; sheep watched in awe
when one fell because of the wind.
Sometimes the sea was in a rage,
other times it was the wind in a fury.
Here, I understood long silences
and who dares break them with noises—
only the mistral and the sea.
Porto Taverna, Sardinia, April 2023
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Poetry in this post: © Gloria D. Gonsalves
Published with the permission of Gloria D. Gonsalves