THE POEM

let’s make ourselves a bridge by Robert Viscusi

for Joseph Tusiani

on the occasion of the presentation of Bridge Apulia USA
Italian Cultural Institute
New York, October 11, 1996

let us make a bridge hot sale Breitling Replica Watches

let us make ourselves a bridge

our ancestors have traced the line of this bridge

one can find it among the mists over the ocean of silence

this line is an ellipse

the hand shapes itself to the curve of the globe

the hand of the working hand sustains the planet

italy is a republic founded on labor

the labor of italians brought us to the new world

every morning we greet a fate interwoven of good and of bad

one achieves american prosperity only in american solitude

here one inhabits not a home town but the surface of the globe

in the wild blue american yonder the trojan horses fly

under the brown american sea glide the hydrogen bombs

remembering italy the migrants sang sad songs

remembering america the italians sang of their regrets

the concentric spheres have varied capacities

the ocean is as slow as the air is swift

this bridge for decades a project now begins to be implemented

in the electronic sphere the spiders spin cables for their webs

on the planet that wanders from sadness to hope rises the bridge

our bridge who art in heaven grant us peace

our hopes make our guardian angels weep

but all that notwithstanding let us make ourselves a bridge

San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge. Photo by Santi Visalli

My Salento - by Maria Felicita Cordella Greetings from Punta Meliso - by Lino Angiuli The tired woman dreamer - by Adeodato Piazza Nicolai Greetings from Castro - by Lino Angiuli OSTUNI, I - by Paolo Valesio The Last Green God - by Barbara Carle Greetings from Acaia - by Lino Angiuli And now that our words… - by Giovanna Politi If you forget me - by Giovanna Politi Only a chapter - by Joseph Tusiani 2015-01-06 - by Francesco Aprile And they will come again - by Giovanna Nosarti Bar - by Maurizio Evangelista Grandma - by Toti Bellone The secret of fire - by Antonio Belpiede Half-open - by Carlo Alberto Augieri (De finibus terrae / The ends of the earth) - by Anita Piscazzi Gargano Olive trees - by Joseph Tusiani With tight long bites - by Rita Rucco The Traveller - by Marcello Comitini Greetings from - by Joseph Tusiani (to life) - by Marco F. D’Astice Deep in the desecrated country - by Tommaso Di Ciaula I was born on the 21st in Springtime - by Alda Merini Late spring - by Adeodato Piazza Nicolai These lemons - by Ernesto Treccani Of dreams and tatters - by Joseph Tusiani My grandmother’s wrinkled hands - by Giovanna Nosarti Freedom - by Marcello Comitini It’ll be a sentence handed down by the fathers - by Teodora Mastrototaro the suitcase - by Alessio Laterza I need - by Maurizio Evangelista Village Village - by Daniele Giancane i was reading the story of stories of stories - by Robert Viscusi Crossing the Murgia - by Sergio D’Amaro Murmur and a pearl - by Joseph Tusiani If you glimpse - by Tommaso Di Ciaula tuning can be difficult if you strain at it - by Robert Viscusi It’s a good omen - by Cristanziano Serricchio You can go deep into the woods at night - by Maurizio Cucchi For love - by Luigi Fontanella Dear words that you hear - by Cristanziano Serricchio Ants and children play nearby - by Cristanziano Serricchio The Celestial City - by Luigi Fontanella A glance at the stars - by Tommaso Di Ciaula When I went back to my town in the South - by Vittorio Bodini We live in a spell - by Vittorio Bodini You don’t know the South - by Vittorio Bodini Wishing for a Wrong Number - by Joseph Tusiani warandpeace: from without to will be - by Walter Vergallo Song of Bicentennial - by Joseph Tusiani A long war - by Tommaso Di Ciaula