like bottles washing up on the shore
of our lives
voices break into our ears
like waves breaking onto the beach
at high tide.
the bottles carry squares of paper entrusted
into their circular walls
stoppered and thrown into
the deep from other shores
poems come to us like that:
written in other places
voiced in foreign tongues
placed in exotic bottles
hand-blown in Murano
when we open them
we are sure that it was
not an accident that they
came ashore right here, just now—
with our names coded in an ancient tongue
written in a secret alphabet
with a message meant only for us
and we read the message-poem aloud
surprised by the timbre and tone
of our own voices
speaking this foreign language
surprised by the new-found fluency
of our tired tongues
voicing the message in a bottle:
a poem coming into port
and the words have never been
so right, so well chosen
arising in a sprung syntax
of song
like the breaking of waves
washing into our hearts without
a murmur
with the beat of another pulse
syncopated with our own
surging in strength until
we feel it beating in our chests
and booming in our ears
listen: I am here ...
écoutes bien: je suis là …
ascolta: io sono qui ...
ouça ainda ... eu estou aqui
listen still ... to this whispering:
you called me
I heard your voice
I sailed the sea
and I arrived here …
… you called:
I heard,
I sailed
and I arrived here …
… you called
and I arrived …
and I arrived …
and I arrived ...
and I arrived ...
and I arrived ...
and I arrived ...
Carlo Corvi
Charles Corbeaux
Chas Ravens
Carlos Corvos
10-01-2008
About the Author
Abou Carlo, also known as Carlo Corvi in Italian and writing variously as Carlos Corvos in Portuguese, Chas Ravens in English and Charles Corbeaux in French, are the poetic and fictional voices of Vincenzo Di Nicola. The name Abou Carlo was given to him by one of his students from Saudi Arabia some twenty years ago and it is the name he uses as a Sufi.Vincenzo Di Nicola was born in Italy and raised in Canada. He began his studies in philosophy and literature as an adolescent, later training in psychology, medicine, paediatrics and psychiatry and specializing in relational therapies at various universities in North America, Israel and Europe. Di Nicola lives in Montreal and is affiliated with the two medical faculties of the Université de Montréal (where he is Professor of Psychiatry) and McGill University (where he is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry). He lectures frequently abroad, notably in Brazil where he is Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Law of Western Minas Gerais (FADOM). Di Nicola is the author of A Stranger in the Family: Culture, Families and Therapy and the forthcoming trilogy on relational psychology—The First Five Minutes (about couples), Fathers and Sons (about families), and The Body in Question/By Any Other Name (on identity).