THE GARDEN OF EDEN

I feel so young and ancient!
As I came off the road,
man's road, so wide and barren,
I walked into my dreams.
The most beautiful snake
wet with warm rain,
dappled with golden spangles
of the sun coming through
such a luxuriant foliage,
flowed by my feet
like a striped river.
Once more I entered
my No Man's Land
Garden of Eden
of all my days.

(Ruah, in Hebrew: divine spirit, wind, fighting spirit.)

RUAH

Rising from my own ashes,
as I open my eyes
to a new day that wants to burn
on the pyre of my dreams.
It is so difficult to wear
my earthly limbs still wet with dew
of sleep never deep of a hunted beast.
I scan the near horizons
and I fear for my burrow
so full of shade and animal smells,
dreading the human desert
whose kiss is death's kiss.

FLYING DANCE

Burning myself alive
in a whirlwind of dance,
as music like a flame
wraps my body and soul,
and my arms growing feathers
lift me high off the ground.
Passionate dreams of love,
gold hair in the night-sun
blue-grey-green eyes: the sea
and the sky are so near!
Waking from life, I'm flying!

"Gianni 2009" (c) Marco Bakker

DAYDREAMS
(from the collection: Earthly Love)

We met like birds on the wing,
your bridal dress as red as blood.
Like feathered creatures
we flew over the ancient garden
of childhood's daydreams:
faces appear in the moss
tall ferns are growing in swirls
frogs are hiding like jewels,
their eyelids powdered with gold.

WIND OF MY SPIRIT

I bare my soul
as I devour myself alive
and I drink my own blood.
What I call mine
to whom does it belong?
In the terrible heat
of the Dog Days
you, earth are panting
but you, Wind of my spirit,
are blowing fiercely.

LIKE A WILD ANIMAL

Like a wild animal
guarding its burrow
against the human dog pack,
all the invisible fangs
and silent rasping claws,
a bloodless death of the soul!
Oh, flaminging angels of Ruah,
give my heart wings on fire,
give me eyes that can raise
burnt out dreams from the ashes!

"Under the Volcano" (c) Gianni Menichetti 1997

All poems from "Ruah" (except Daydreams) by Gianni Menichetti 2008