The Season of Love Flavia Cosma
(translated from Romanian by Flavia Cosma with Charles Siedlecki)
ISBN Number: 9780615200972
The soul searches for its lost threads,
Broken, squandered and forgotten,
Silvery, the olive tree with its soft leaves
Caresses our sight as in the past,
God lays His mighty square hand
On our foreheads.
Knotted threads disentangle themselves one by one,
Grandmother’s neck, with scent of quince,
Lets itself be kneaded by little fingers.
Withered portraits float on time’s waters;
From the glistening deep well,
The soul, quenches its thirst;
Silvery threads meticulously bond;
The Holy Book gives us
Pure peace.
Behind fences, Jesus,
Gently shelters us.
Flavia Cosma’s poetry collection, The Seasons of Love, is a fine example of Červená Barva Press’s dedication to publishing authors of Eastern and Central European descent or extraction. As the above poem, “The Soul’s Threads,” illustrates, this collection is not only filled with startling images, but also with an unshakeable sense of faith that manages to be not just deeply sincere, but also profound. In a world where treacly, cliché-ridden stanzas about Jesus Christ, the Crucifixion and God’s love for His children are as common as carpenter ants, a work that attempts to probe the deeper mysteries of Christianity is not only rare, but notable.
And there is much that is notable about Cosma’s poetry aside from its willingness to touch Christianity’s deepest core. Her use of language and metaphor is often striking and unusual. In “Paper Flowers,” autumn offers humanity “the sun,/spread out,/On shining trays of ice”; a shell “engraved in living dust/pulsates in the warm flesh like a wound” in “A Butterfly;” and “fragrant foliage” resembles “some green, small dog’s ears” in “Quiet Rain.” Like many Christian mystical poets before her, including St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Francis of Assisi, Cosma finds in nature’s beauty a reflection of the divine, and consistently exalts its wonders.
The Season of Love is an astounding and challenging poetry collection that belies the idea that all Christian poetry must be deeply restrained, or awash in mush. It is recommended not only to lovers of Romanian poetry, but to all who can appreciate elegant and honest religious verse.