Dispatches from Italy #4: La Connessione

Hello once more, readers! In this dispatch, we share a final set of poems from the student poets of G.B. Vico Junior High School in Grosseto, Italy. One of the amazing things about poetry is that it allows us to connect with people around the world – people who we may never meet, but who have had experiences and feelings that, when expressed in poetry, remind us that we are not alone. Every poem we have shared over the past weeks, and every poem in this set, is a deeply personal expression of these student poets’ understandings of themselves and the world around them. We hope that you can recognize yourself in these words. And, at the same time, we hope that these poems give you a sense of wonder at how complex and different each person is from one another. In that contradiction, the roots of authentic connection – la connessione – can emerge. Thank you to these student poets for bravely sharing their words and the magic of poetry with us!

G.B. Vico Junior High School English Class

I Am... Matteo T.

I am gentle and sensitive
I wonder why the world is unfair
I hear the sounds of nature,
I watch the sea from a high cliff
I want my dreams to come true
I am gentle and sensitive

The Way I Am Sofia R.

I am tall and shy.
I wonder what I can do right now
I hear voices
I see things that nobody else can see
I want to be loved,
I am tall and shy.

Friends Alessia K.

I am thin and sensitive,
I wonder why I am here
I hear people laughing,
I see kids playing
I want to have many friends,
I cry when someone is sad
I am thin and sensitive.

Hereafter Andrea C.

I wonder what is after death,
I hear my memories
I see the future
I pretend to be someone else
I feel lonely
I touch everything I see
I cry when I leave my home

Nature Davide V.

Nature is all we have.
Nature is life,
Nature is love,
Nature is all we have.
Nature is beauty
Nature is color,
The nature is dying
Nature is all we have.

Where Am I Going? Alice N.

I wonder why I am still here,
I hear my future self
I see burned sand
I just want to be free.
I pretend I am someone I am not
I touch a line that never ends
I cry when I don’t know why I am still here.

A Lucky Ukrainian Guy Matteo T.

I am a lucky Ukrainian guy,
I watch my dad fighting,
I see him dying,
I hear people screaming
I touch my brother’s body
Little space and no food for me,
Yet I am still here, I am a lucky Ukranian guy.

Never Give Up Niccolò S.

I am strong and I never give up.
I want to reach the stars,
I cry when I don’t know how to express myself
But I am strong, and I never give up.

Beyond Reality Alessio L.

I see beyond reality,
I wonder if I will ever discover something new,
I feel the earth moving
I touch the air around me
I see, I wonder, I feel, I touch…
I see beyond reality