Ode to the Forest

Thank you, woods, for giving me back my eyes

even when I close them
lying on your lawn.

For giving me a reason to have hands
to hold me on to your roots
if the foot backs down on the earth.
You taught me to overcome
the fear of walking at night
from noises I do not know,
from beings I do not see
but with my eyes,
which appear like little moons
behind a sky of black bark
and observes my soul
which I didn’t remember having.

PIETRO BERRA, Como, Italy (1975)
Translation Germain Droogenbroodt – Stanley Barkan