Author: Franca Colozzo

Publisher: Passerino Editore

Published: 2020-08-05

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 8835873940

"Really alive in dark times! The innocent word is foolish. A stretched forehead means insensitivity. Whoever laughs, hasn't known the terrible news yet." From Bertolt Brecht's lyric (1938): "To those who will come". This collection of my poems comes from the tormented period we are experiencing, as spectators or actors of a difficult era, of a period of transition towards new and inscrutable horizons of history, now unknown to us. My verses represent a tribute of hope in a better world and the hope that humanity will not sink into a new Middle Ages. Considering the brutality of what is happening both in the microcosm of the family and in the macrocosm of society due to terrorist factions, including ISIS, I felt the need to raise my humble voice together with the choral voice of more enlightened contemporary poets. Heinous murders, especially against unarmed women and children, perpetrated inside the domestic walls, on one side; massacres and massacres not only at the gates, but also within the heart of the West, on the other hand, tend in a different way to make us withdraw on positions of subordination to brute force and of relegation towards an intolerant barbarism. In addition to all this, there are the current problems resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic that is bringing the whole world to its knees. Hence the name "Damned Times" which distinguishes this simple collection of verses. Therefore, forgive me some blunder or redundancy of style, the metric or the lack of metric that the different emotional situations have aroused in me according to the various circumstances. I had the audacity to translate some poems of mine into English. Forgive me for any mistakes, since - although I use English as my custom and ambition - I cannot consider myself a perfect connoisseur of this idiom. In addition to the topical poems, I added others of love or aimed at contemplating nature and, in particular, the sea. Precisely from this latter element, which characterizes my historical town Gaeta (Lazio region) stretching out over the Tyrrhenian Sea, I have drawn the poetic and descriptive force of situations and alternating seasons. Dr. Arch. FRANCA COLOZZO ̶ an Italian Architect/writer/novelist, poet, educationist, retired teacher of “Drawing and History of Art” in Italy and Istanbul (Turkey) on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ̶ has been nominated in March 2018 Global Goodwill Ambassador (GGA Director~ITALY) by the influencer Richard DiPilla (Virginia – USA) and, in March 2019, INSPAD ~Ambassador of Peace & CEO of IHC~Intenational Harmony Council by Dr. Muhammad Tahir Tabassum, President of INSPAD ~ Institute of Peace and Development, in Islamabad (Pakistan), a NGO incorporated with the UN with special observer status & Think Tank based in Islamabad (Pakistan) and Belgium. During the seven years spent abroad, thanks to her multi-ethnic and multi-cultural experience, she organized exhibitions of Art at the Italian High School I.M.I., the Italian Institute of Culture and the most prestigious universities in Istanbul (Turkey). Multi-tasked, creative and enthusiastic with strong belief in organizational innovation, she is an excellent team worker even in a multicultural context. Passionate about justice, attentive to the rights of the weakest social classes and the importance of the education of women and children, her current focus is in writing novels, poems, essays, articles on different newspapers and blogs about Human Rights, Kashmir, Peace, environmental problems, refugees, women’s empowerment, education and health related programs, etc. She is at present very active on social media to promote peace through articles, comments, publications also on ACADEMIA.edu.