The Negro Mother

Children, I come back today
To tell you a story of the long dark way
That I had to climb, that I had to know
In order that the race might live and grow.
Look at my face -- dark as the night --
Yet shining like the sun with love's true light.
I am the dark girl who crossed the red sea
Carrying in my body the seed of the free.
I am the woman who worked in the field
Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield.
I am the one who labored as a slave,
Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave --
Children sold away from me, I'm husband sold, too.
No safety , no love, no respect was I due.

Three hundred years in the deepest South:
But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth .
God put a dream like steel in my soul.
Now, through my children, I'm reaching the goal.

Now, through my children, young and free,
I realized the blessing deed to me.
I couldn't read then. I couldn't write.
I had nothing, back there in the night.
Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,
But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.
Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun,
But I had to keep on till my work was done:
I had to keep on! No stopping for me --
I was the seed of the coming Free.
I nourished the dream that nothing could smother
Deep in my breast -- the Negro mother.
I had only hope then , but now through you,
Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:
All you dark children in the world out there,
Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow --
And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my pass a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver's track.
Remember how the strong in struggle and strife
Still bar you the way, and deny you life --
But march ever forward, breaking down bars.
Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.
Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers
Impel you forever up the great stairs --
For I will be with you till no white brother
Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother.

by Langston Hughes

Spring time?

After quite a lot of rain, I really hope so.
Today we've started to prepare the soil...at least for potatoes...and I've cut weed which is already high!

A day of storm in this spring

It's raining, raining and raining...and my scarves are tight around my neck...it's too cold...

Spring buds

Winter days when the snow shows up

This sunday we have walked all along the river banks on a deserted road.

That was like breathing peace.

Winter

Last days of this fall, remembered in a winter foggy night

An open letter to the President

Dear Mr President,

you seem to me a very wise and reasonable person and if you are thinking to send more troops to Afghanistan it's because you have pondered your choice.

You have not decided quickly and you are probably suffering because you know you are sending your fellow citizens into the harm's way.

I am probably the last person who should write you a message. I am just a teacher of 30 years old. In my brief working life I have done different kinds of jobs which entailed big and little responsibilities . The most difficult work was serving as a member of the town council of the village of 1700 inhabitants where I live.

It is quite obvious that it is nothing comparable to what you are going through as a Commander-in-Chief of such a Nation. What we have in common and shared, even if at a very different level, is the responsibility of taking a choice not only for ourselves, but for the sake of a number of people, no matter how big or small this group could be. This is a very hard task.

Probably, I should not even be entitled to address you these few lines, as I am writing you not from the American land, but from the other side of the ocean. But I am a citizen of this world and I would love to hope in a better future for America, a country I deeply love, for its sons and daughters and for each and everyone of us, who stand by you and believe in you.

Dear Mr President, please be the change you have promised to us all, be the hope, be the example to follow. Show us you will be the first to really start a different and new course.

My country has been taking part in many of the so called "peace missions" around the world. We have lost many soldiers who have been sent abroad with the hope to grant a better life to their families and with the illusion to bring help to suffering civilians.

Help should be provided differently; protection to our nations should be granted peacefully. We cannot receive peace if the exchange good is war.

I am a content and lucky person, because even if I live in a country full of contradictions, I have always lived in peace. War was brought to me only through my grandfather's tales about being a Partisan in a time of Fascism. I understand there are always two sides of a coin and there is good and bad. We are all fans of the "good team" and we should help those who fight the "bad" one.

Dear Mr President, I want to tell you one last thing...before sending people to fight for freedom and peace, try to think one more time if you can be the first to really believe in these values. Please, remember: our peace must not mean war and desperation for someone else. We all deserve some kind of peace and as a human being, I cannot be completely satisfied when it is not shared.

Fall days turn yellow

Light is quick to disappear and it seems like i'm at the end of the day...time to rest, to dine and to read a good book in front of the stove. But when the light goes, i start the second part of my anomalous working day, i drive my car in the dark roads and i get to school and i meet people and i teach until late, while everybody's is out drinking beer or in front of their paralyzing televisions.

So when the light allows me to play, i walk and i go out and i picture my fall.

How to turn this time of crisis in a new hot fall?

People are struggling in an everyday fight for survival.

A better place to live in, a better job, a better condition.

People try not to live, but survive. People are content with what this time concedes them. Because everyday is a gift and if you get throu it, you can call yourself lucky.

The problem is that we shouldn't survive, we wanna live deeply every single day of our lives.

We partially satisfy our desires because it seems like we have no hope for the days to come. We don't even dare to ask for more and we quietly listen to this defeaning silence. Nothing is left, emptiness.

We should get out of this. We should stand up and speak up for what is supposed to be our time, our chance to act, the only way to change the unfortunate and uncertain state of things.

Isn't just easier to wait and see what happens? Our lives isn't in our hands and we can't draw our destiny anymore and do we like it? We have studied, we have done sacrifices, we have been exploited in our workplaces. Sometimes we have even done something we didn't like so much or we've accepted jobs position in which our studies were worthless, but we'vealways done every task we've been assigned with dignity and commitment and we've always given the same answer to our boss, or big corporation or the system itself: yes.

Why can't we fill up every road with infinite lines of people standing and asking for new responses? Why can't we turn this time of incertitude in a revolutionary time for renovation?

We deserve a better world, but we can't hope to have it being passive individuals; we need to get the guts and go,together.

What i feel is like we have the power. Can we trasform it in something positive as the past generations did in their troubled time?

Chilly fall day

Frosted front porch
a cup of tea in your cold hand
white leaves
and white striped sheets of paper
and wool gloves
and banjo sound...

"Look for me another day
I feel that I could change
I feel that I could change"

September nights

This glimpse of late summer is bringing chilly nights. I try hard to find wool pulls forgotten and hidden in those hot and humid summer days in some of my armoires. But you know, you never remember where you've put them, shoved somewhere, too desperate to see then again.

And outside it starts to be cold and it's deep because it's its first appearance and the sensation is even worse. You feel it in your bones. We try to keep us warm with huge tea cups...in the almost foggy night...

In the farm we stay up 'til late, there's always something to do, always something happens any time...if there's a hitch and a machine has broken or some equipments don't work and as a consequence we consume our meals late in the night.

The house walls seem thicker than they actually are...and cold...we even prefer to stay out...all together...and then...

Another day comes...it's already time to wake up...and it's a sunny day, and it's warm even if our awakening was in the middle of a dew field, after a cool september long night.

Back to the written side of my soul

Written on july 19th

Last time i've typed some keys of my keyboard to write something about days goin' on was at the beginning of this year. These almost 7 months have gone so fast, but even if i haven't written about what i've had inside for this long period, every sensation is very well impressed in my memory and especially in my soul.

These seven months have been long, busy, exciting, sad, though, serene.

I've spent the great majority of my time doing something that was not totally new to me, but not even ordinary. I've taught in a middle school as a Professor of french and this experience has been extremely enriching, upsetting, overwhelming, encouraging.

My mind was very concentrated on this task, not simply concretely preparing exercices and test, but exploring the minds of those surrounding me: students and colleagues.

Teaching to students of that age is not easy; i was very used to relate -especially in the last 2 years- to adults. I'm talking about companies employees and managers with whom i had a very nice relationship, but still it's a target very different from the one i've had the chance to experience this year. Kids need much more than simply learning a foreign language. Having only 2h per each class, i've probably missed a lot about the caharacters i had in front of me, but i tried anyway to give an added value to my lessons and to the time i've spent with my students, trying to attract them in every possible way. They need a lot and i'm sure that teachers can do a difference but it's never enough. They need trust and encouragment, they need strictness and rules, they need a point of reference and support. Some of them can't find these things in their family and i feel like school has to play a role in helping the students. This sometimes happens, but in many other cases the school is like an outlaw.

I've learned a lot this year. I've learned to look inside myself better. I learned to give more than one possibility to others. I learned from the spontaneity of young people and from the experience of the oldest ones who shared this school year with me. Sometimes i learned more from the younger than the older and i've been very deceived by the behaviours of those from which I should learn because of their age and their position. Sometimes i felt very unexperienced compared to them, but at the same time much more accurate in my everyday tasks, more correct and impartial in my behaviours. I feel like it's important to be loyal with students, they realize it when you're not.

The final exams have been a good test for all of us. It has been a lot of work, but i didn't complain, i enjoyed the period. And school has gone with its goodbyes and this first part of the year which has been very special and a growing time of this life.

Dear friends,

at the end of this holiday season, i hope each of you had the chance to spend time with loved ones, sharing good food and good company, or simply enjoying this time of the year, doing something you’ve always postponed for the rest of the past one because of no time.

At the end of December we usually do a lot of reflections.

What were the things you were proud of, those things you’ve done that have brought you a great sense of joy, even if there wasn’t necessarily an economic return.

You think about your evolution, your courage, the risks you’ve taken. You think about your expression, your growths. To sum up…you think about how are you different this December than you were last December. And you think about the things you still have to do, “the missions you still want to accomplish”. (I always have an endless number of them!!)

Then you think about the things you’re grateful for…and some can be people, family, friends, mentors, colleagues, neighbours, dogs, who are an active and constant part of your everyday life…but it can also be food, education or simply your being alive.

These are only some of the things to be grateful for in advance for the new coming year, I guess. Some human beings are not that fortunate. So I feel like we should remember this not only at the end of the year, but everyday.

You know, I usually like to send you my wishes in a different way, so this year I’ve decided to write to you at the beginning of this New one, hoping this will be good. For you and for the world we’re all living in.

My wishes for you are:

• to explore/discover what talent is sitting in your back pocket that you’ve not yet expressed…

• to slow down, when you feel like you’re not living your life deeply

• to reach out to someone

• to share what you have with those who have less, whether it may be your money, your culture, your listening, your comprehension

• to breathe the air intensely and drink your tap water, thinking about how to preserve them as much as you can

This beginning of the year we don’t have a very positive international scenario unfortunately. There are still many conflicts going on all over the world and we’re in the middle of what media are painting like the big crisis. And we’re all touched, we can see it in our everyday life, but we’re just the last victims of this globalized market and this corporate world, which already killed many before us in the non-western countries, but nobody said even a word. All this pushed us ‘til this point where there’s nothing left over to get no more.

As I’m used to be, I wanna be positive, inviting you to join forces with the purpose to create something that will benefit you and others, using your creativity and ideas. Because these are priceless “goods” I’m sure you have, to build something positive for yourself, your community, your workplace. And for these “goods” there’s no inflation, in a world where everything has a cost, you can have them for free!!! Lack of money can in some cases –not always, unfortunately- be replaced by your brain. Make it work!

Trusting in your abilities to change-what a wonderful word this year!- something that goes wrong in this planet, turning it in a positive one, I send you tons of love and a very Happy New Year.

The new awakening

Now I know that all I’ve hoped for so long, but that I couldn’t believe until the end, it’s true for real. I’ve waited some days before writing. I’ve followed the process until the last poll closed and I remember the long night spent on an air mattress, trying not to sleep, so that the awakening could be less traumatic. Yes, because I was scared to wake up to an old America, to an old World that never changes and always applauds the same luckiest individuals, leaving behind the unfortunates.

This prouves, as i've always thought, that money can do a lot, but not the difference; money can sometimes buy people, but it not always changes mentalities. Lack of funds or significate corporate support for one time didn't count that much; for one time those who once sought influence promising big reward had to go home; power shared by the hands of few, isn't always a commonplace.

These days are just a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago. But this time the awakening was different and it was real. It was really time to start to dream, this is a moment to dream. So let me absorb this euphoria.

Voters began lining up before dawn, hours before polls opened. People decided not to surrender, people decided to give a chance to democracy, even if their expectations have been disregarded so many times in the last years, destroyed, broken, trampled, disenchanted. Even if they knew they could live another deception, another unhopeful day to be added to other broken promises. Even if there was the remote possibility to change nothing, they had the gut to jump out and go. And vote. And they made history.

It’s like election time in my small village. It's like seeing an old man getting out of the car, accompanied by someone, using a stick to support himself, hardly walking inside the village school to exercise one of the greatest right that we’ve ever gained. Yes, because the right to vote it’s not old stuff. So many people struggled and died to grant everyone on this earth the right to play their role in the society. There are many things i dislike about my country, but election time is a special moment for me. Even if these people are often pretty old, they don’t give up and they still fight for their ideas and most of all, for a better future for their grandchildren, even if they won’t be there with them for any longer. I admire those people and I admired those who finally understood and exercised this right in this crucial occasion.

Many citizens voted for their first time.

Let’s think about those who once marched, sang and those who now can say: “it’s happening,”. This is not a question of race, I’ve never seen this election as a question of race, but I can surely affirm it’s a redemption for many.

Many people didn’t get to the Promised Land, but somebody will get there. Those who fought and saw people falling in the streets, pushed away by the water jets, and repeated form of injustices, could not hold back the tears, the emotions of a lifetime suddenly came to mind, one by one. It's like a return game, but there's no revenge.

Tough days lie ahead. But it’s a moment to dream. Americans have earned that right, along with the renewed respect of the world.

This is the country I’ve been told and that I got to know. The country i’ve discovered through the tales of my father and later those i've read, written about and experienced on my own skin. This is the country that represents the people who crossed my path for a minute or a lifetime.

We don’t know if this dream will become reality, but now it’s still our time to dream.

This is what happened in a Tuesday night of one month ago…and all this happened for real…

We awake to a different world now.

My summer in pictures

I was used to spend my summers abroad. I couldn't wait for the season coming so that i could stay away from everything for whole weeks. I've always hated the idea of being at home in the countryside in those hot and humid days, typical of this flat land where i've grown up.

Then i started to enjoy the loneliness of this place; the small village shops closed or almost empty, when everyone is gone.

Chilly nights in the porch haven't been that bad and hot afternoons inside my house everything, but boring.

I've spent my summer being in motion all the time, there was always something to do, even too much that i didn't even had time to go out with friends or simply reading a book.

When i wanted to be alone, i just needed to go out and walk or bike; when i wanted to get in connection with the land, i just had to plant new crops or pick those seeded previously; when i wanted to see people, i drove to the village bar and had a beer; when i wanted to talk to animals...there's plenty of them outside!!!

This is my summer in pictures...i've had a lot of company.

Blacky and me in one of my 4 vegetable gardens

The grandparents spent with us almost the entire summer. After the surgery of my granny, they both "moved" here in the countryside, so we had quite a lot of company.

Andrew came over all the time when he was done with work, and when he didn't work he worked here at the farm helping me out in the 4 gardens i still have.

We cut grass and weed...and every week it was a lot of work not using any kind of pesticides...then we had to hoe between one crop and the other...then we had to pick vegetables and...the most exciting part...we had to eat all those stuff!!

I can't count the number of corn on the cob we've had...dad often had them twice a day..one for lunch and one for dinner...we converted everyone around...nobody wanted to eat corn on the cob, they were kind of skeptikal...the only one who didn't not surrender was grandad, saying that corn is for cows and that he's not a goat.

Corn on the cob makes me think about american country fairs...sweet memories of past summers travelling...

Andrew with a lot of crops

Some of the pumpkins we've grown

A corn field before harvest time

Picking peppers...

























We've also had people visiting us!
My dear friend Damiano came back to Italy to visit his family and to teach italian, so he couldn't leave without having a big pan of parmesan eggplants.
I was used to spend the 15th of August very far away from here, but this year...well....i spent the day here and i had fun. Mum and i prepared food a week in advance, so that we all enjoyed the day of the Feast eating together at a big table.
An Uruguayan friend of Damiano stayed with us too for some days and my sweet ex-colleague and friend Floriana also joined us.
We had a very good day, good food, good chats and a good ending. We sunk in the sand...close to the river banks, while we were romantically driving close to the water to see the sunset all together..we called dad who came with the pick up truck...to literally "pick us up"...obviously we didn't see nothing else than dust trying to get out from there...not even a ray of the sunset of this august 15th...


Checking if it's really goooooooodddddddd!

My sweethearts!!!


I know these guys...

I had a very different and unusual, but very good summer, immersed in the nature, in this place in the middle of something...