The library of Coimbra

By Laura Garavaglia

 Laura Garavaglia (b. 1956, Milan) is an Italian poet with a degree in human geography from the University of Milan. She has received several literary prizes for her poetry – latest for her collection of poems “Farfalle e pietre” (“Butterflies and rocks”) published in 2010. Her poems have been published in various anthologies.

Laura Garavaglia is deeply engaged in the literary environment in Como, where she has lived and worked for many years; in 2011 she was the co-organizer of the literary festival “Parolario” in Como. She is the chairman of the cultural association “La Casa Della Poesia di Como” with the purpose of disseminating poetry in the area of Como and she is currently working at the cultural section of the Como newspaper “L'Ordine” – to mention a few.

BIRTH

Something viscous, solid stretches to the limit

                                                     [muscles and pain.

Then liquid running between thighs, blood staining

                                                     [the sheets.

Viscid and warm, the mystery of forever on the belly

[generates love.

Life begins where the dream dies.

ALAN TURING

Even you who gave birth

to the great artificial intelligence

locked in diversity lived

backwards as vice, under a sky

of numbers and signs

have met the evil of the fairy tale

that forces morality into an obscene sneer.

THE LIBRARY OF COIMBRA

Two hundred thousand volumes kept on shelves

of gold madeira wood.

Noctules, at sunset, devour insects, defending

millions of words from woodworm.

Knowledge has the stale smell and the silence due

to dead things.