Leonardo Omar Onida, (Sassari, 1979. He graduated in Computer Science and a degree in philosophy at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of Sassari with a thesis on the issue of consent in the analysis of three contemporary philosophers, Hannah Arendt, Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor. Postgraduate qualification in Migration and Social Policy (at the University of Sassari). Coordinator of training courses, engaged since 1996 in the field of information technology and telecommunications. Winner of national and international awards for literature in the poetry section, including: “Francesco Flora” (Colle Sannita – 1996) “Forico Sechi” (Sassari – 2003) “Marguerite Yourcenar” (Melegnano – 2004) “L’arcobaleno della vita” (Rovigo – 2006). He published “Frammenti dal Caos”, (Montedit, 2005) IoNonEsiste, (Pellicano 2015) and Gli alberi non scrivono poesie with Beppe Costa and Silvano Agosti, (Seam 2014).
Founder and president of the Cultural Association POP – Project OttobreinPoesia. Creator and Artistic Director of the International Festival of Poetry “October in Poetry” held in Sassari in October. Founder and head of the International Literary Prize City of Sassari. Both projects have received prestigious sponsorships such as President of the Republic, the Ministry of Culture, the National Commission for UNESCO, the President of the Chamber. Creator and organizer of Cantiere Poetico, cultural event from March to July that will include presentations of books, poetry reading, music, seminars on cinema and poetry writing, workshops with international artists. Referent for Sardinia Palabra en el Mundo, a project of the International Festival of Poetry of Havana that provides three days of poetry readings at the same time whith more than 250 cities worldwide. Founder and member of MoRePoSt: Movement Restitution Poetics Amazement (Movimento Restituzione Poetica Stupore). Creator and co-responsible for the opening of the Cultural Space Civico66 in Sassari. Co-founder of the projects: Equi-Tao, CCULT: Cantiere Cultura, BONUSS, sassaricultura.it.
I don’t believe
I don’t believe the sky
is an innocent mantle
I don’t believe the coherence
matches the order of ideas
I don’t believe in the prophets of the contemporary
who have bartered the truth with the consent
I do not believe in healing time
I do not think the truth of the people
powered by disengagement
I do not think the friendships
avoiding the truth
the look
I do not think the future salvation
when you ignore the existence during
I do not believe the stories
of those who did not experience himself
as a journey
I do not think that traveling
it means to have every time
new eyes
I do not think that growing
it means to lose progressively
his astonishment and
own naivete,
when alone with their responsibilities
I do not think that the human being
was born on Aging
I do not believe in salvation
after death
I do not believe in the concept of “ bad teachers”
I do not think the revolutions
that lead only to change
color to the uniform
I do not think that it is enough to write verses
to be convinced that he wrote a poem
I do not think a true artist
can never give birth
to a masterpiece, a work of genius
without a bit let die ‘
of his ego…
Flight
I search,
I measure,
I confront myself and I sing
squeezing the eye of divine nature.
I looked at the bottom of me
and I saw all of you;
I spoke to you with passion
and I found myself again…
Dusts of Orient
Magic of orient
stories of artifacts
on rusty shelves
in the markets of Kabul.
Thin dust
to conceal with discretion
horrifying inventions
of bellicose sciences,
that came from Occident.
But you still
travel
and then travel,
nothing seems to end:
and sand to hide and cover,
the generous desert
nothing else can
offer,
and for a long time.
Until the darkness
will swallow the sun.
Mosaic of stars
White stone
like other ones,
mosaic of stars.
The disenchanted look
that doesn’t search,
but with rust and soot
paints afternoons,
beachfronts,
worlds
without light
locked in vials,
like medieval
stills
that distill the stars.
Drop
Distractedly
like it often happens
to those who worry too much,
I stopped thinking
about your disarming simplicity.
However, how many times I’ve met you!
And each time I’m amazed
you distract me,
lighting first
my anxieties of a youngster
then my boredom of a man never complete.
You have entered
foreheads of Heroes,
that of a full vase
you are the end.
I meet you in every era,
every people has
stories and symbols for you
to show and to tell.
The charm of your fall
is equal to that of your stay,
immovable.
In harmonious company
infinite others like you,
to form all together
boundless seas.
I’ve tried to break you up
calling you with names
of molecules.
But you are Drop,
guardian of the secret of every thing.
translations of Karen Costa
Jack-Hirschman, Alex Pausides and Leonardo Omar Onida
