#84 On poetry
Ogni Paese
Hello friend,
First of all apologies to anyone who got this post sent to them yesterday. As I was scheduling this weeks posts I accidentally published two posts on the same day. I wonder if any other Substackers have had this problem, as it seems so very easy to hit publish instead of schedule. So please excuse the slip of my finger on the keyboard.
Now back to what I wanted to share with you … ahem…
Poetry is and will always be my first love. My poems come from my dreams, imagination and emotions. They appear in my mind unexpectedly.
An idea comes in a phrase or an image that keeps repeating itself. Something will nag me to the point I cannot ignore. I write it down, and it leaves my mind and becomes something else.Â
My process of putting a poem together is rather essential. I bash things together to make them fit, hammering together the letters and sounds.Â
I discard most of my work through editing. Then, my poems are left to ferment and bubble over many years. Those who survive the process and the passing of time usually turn out to become something worthwhile.
I have been writing poems since childhood. Everyone secretly loves poetry, and I never believe someone when they say poetry isn't their thing.
Anyone who listens to songs and music likes poetry because where there's music, words aren't too far away.
Self-publish poetry and artwork has become a fascination of mine, and I am currently working on a couple of new projects for 2023.
I've been scribbling in a sketchbook ever since I could hold a pen, and I particularly love physical and digital collage work. I adore creating something new, particularly collages, to connect things, colours, textures, and worlds based on my interests and perspective.
I want to share a poem today with you. Sicily inspires it because this place represents an intimate connection to the island through my maternal grandparents. My Sicilian poems are inspired by and are the fruits of two decades of experience living on an ancient Mediterranean island.Â
The Trinacria is an ancient sun and fertility symbol featured on the flags of Sicily and the Isle of Man.
The Sicilian interpretation is made up of a Gorgon's head. Its hair is made of intertwined serpents and ears of corn. Around the face, there are three legs bent at the knee.Â
Each appendage represents a promontory of Sicily - Cape Pelorus at Messina in the North-East, Cape Passero at Syracuse in the South and Cape Lilibeo at Marsala in the West.Â
In Greek, triskeles is linked to the geographic meaning treis (three) and akra (capes). Also, in Latin, triquetra means three peaks.
According to the Greek poet Hesiod, the Gorgons were mythological creatures who were the daughters of the sea gods Ceto and Phorcys. The most famous are Medusa, then Stheno and Euryale.
The Gorgon's have wild boar tusks, hands of bronze, golden wings and snakes around their heads and waist. The sisters lived at the Hesperides in the westernmost part of the world and could turn people to stone. Â
This wonderfully exotic mythology is a perfect metaphor for Sicily in an intoxicating, dark mixture of cultures.
The poem In ogni paese (In every village) is part of my self-published poetry collection entitled Trinacria Poems. It is a reflection on the eternal nature of small Sicilian towns and what holds and binds them together.
This artwork was one of the first digital collages, I was actually willing to share and feel as if I genuinely liked it. After producing literally hundreds I didn’t like or couldn’t achieve the look I had in mind, this seemed the closest to what I had in mind.
In Trinacria poems I created artwork that reflected the sentiments expressed in each poem, concentrating on various colour palates, stories, characters and themes. All of the images are from my own personal family archive along with many vintage items I have collected throughout the years.
In ogni paese
 In every paese, there is an energy
filled with the spirit of young & old paesani
Every paese has its old palazzi,
a Chiesa Madre held together
by the tenacity of the parish priest.
In every paese, children run to catechism
bounding, yelling and jumping
as youthful innocence and impatience do.
Every paese has its drunks, mad men, fools
buttane, delinquente as it has its
professore, avvocati, mamme e sindaci
In every paese there is a
Peter Pan, Bar del Corso,
a smoke filled Tabaccheria
a Piazza 24 aprile,
 monumento ai caduti
 e santi patroni.
Every paese is haunted by the ghosts
 of those who die or never returned,
 from dead Mafiosi,
 to abandoned children,
 poveracci and
 Saraceni who were exiled
 from their home.
In every paese, there are one-eyed peasants
who will blindly love their village
captured by a certain forgotten magic
even if the paese is gradually decaying and crumbling
they see the beauty of their youth
and a life passing by,
without acknowledging the blight.
Every paese is filled with the desperation,
tears and joy of many lives lived
side by side for eternity.
In ogni paese, Sicilians live with the delusion
they have eternal life
a myth their history leads them to believe.
I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to thank you for reading along.
If you like poetry, Trinacria poems is available here.
Have a great one.
Love and light
From RochelleÂ
This is a free preview of a paid post. If you want to keep reading after the paywall, update to become a paid subscriber, where you will get bonus posts and the latest installment of my travel memoir, Sicilian Descent, dedicated to my experiences living in Sicily. Your support makes this work possible. If you want a subscription but can't afford one, please email me at rochelledb@substack.com, and I can add you to the comp list.
About me
My name is Rochelle Del Borrello (@rochelledelborrello), and I'm a writer, ESL teacher and blogger based in Sicily, Italy. Over the past decade, I've been writing about Sicily online, as a travel writer and on my blog.
I started 'A Load off my Mind' to share more of my writing, thoughts, and discoveries directly and regularly with you. My newsletter is a way of sharing what is happening in my creative life in Sicily—part slice of life, part travel memoir and all with my philosophical yet honest point of view.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you'll consider becoming a supporter for EUR 5.00 per month (the price of a weekly catch-up over a coffee). Alternatively, if you'd like to send a one-off something, you can buy me a coffee using this link. No worries if you can't chip in or don't feel like doing so, but please consider forwarding this to a friend or two. It's a big help.