Carmen-Francesca Banciu – Summer idyll

Download PDF Here 13th Anniversary
Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four December 2022.

Summer idyll, poems by Carmen-Francesca Banciu.

From the Fictional Epistolary Novel to Günter Grass coming in Spring 2023 with PalmArtPress, Berlin.

Dedicated to the thousands of dying dolphins on the Black Sea coast.

Summer idyll

On June 8, 2022
In the early morning
Summer had broken out
I am certain
Because the cicadas
Were suddenly back
Chirping at the top of their lungs
I am certain of it
Because of the war
Because of the news
That haunted me every day
And because of the rampage at the Gedächtniskirche
Once again near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
The whole world was
Out of balance
Only the cicadas, as always,
Announced the beginning of summer
With their scratchy voices
With their shrill song
Only the cicadas chirped as always
On June 8, summer was here again
Unperturbed by war and crises
Inflation or pandemic
Family quarrels
Broken relationships
Broken friendships
Painful separations
Hateful arguments
Radical differences of opinion
Because of war, crises and pandemics
Hundred days and more
A hundred days old and more
Was the war
Its dusty poison
Carried in all directions
Over mountains and seas
By the wind
Over mountains and seas

We fight for the environment
The planet we want to save
With hate and war
But today on June 8th
The cicadas are back
They chirp
Thinner are their voices today
Bougainvillea and oleander bloom
Olive trees are already heavy laden
Fig trees prematurely fragant
From unripe fruit
As if it no longer had faith
to reach late summer
Thyme blooms
Swallows
and eagles circle over
Scouted prey
And butterflies
Slow worms
Orphaned dogs
And stray cats
Left behind by the tourists
Only the poisoned dolphins
Torn to shreds
By mines and rockets
Leap into the air
Washed up
On the beach, they lie
On the Black Sea Coast

@ Carmen-Francesca Banciu

Carmen-Francesca Banciu was born in Romanian Lipova and studied religious painting and foreign trade in Bucharest. As a result of being awarded the International Short Story Award of the City of Arnsberg for the story “Das strahlende Ghetto” (1985), she was banned from publishing her work in Romania. In 1991 she accepted an invitation extended by DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence program and came to Germany. She has been living in Berlin since 1992, employed as a freelance author writing articles for the radio and newspapers as well as leading seminars for creativity and creative writing. Since 2013 she has acted as the co-editor and deputy director of the transnational, interdisciplinary and multilingual e-magazine Levure Littéraire. Banciu has received numerous literature prizes and scholarships; most recently her novel Lebt wohl, Ihr Genossen und Geliebten was nominated 2018 for the German Book Prize. Her work has been translated into many languages.