Sunday, June 26, 2011

Newly Expanded Edition of Water and Life Now Available!

Water and Life:


Photos and Poems
in English and Italian


By Adolph Caso






Followers of my blog will already know that I am a great fan of Adolfo Caso's photography and poetry. With his camera, he captures snippets of God's beautiful world and the people inhabiting it. With this poetry, he stirs our memories and our passions. One thing he doesn't do is leave you wanting for something "new" from him to enjoy!

The fifth edition of Water and Life has just come out and bookstores may not even have it available yet, so I've included a link to his publishing site. By the way, while testing this link, I watched a track on the latest course Adolfo is teaching for Dante University! And you'll also see another of his latest books, God and Evolution, which I've already recommended to readers... This energetic, experienced writer, poet, photographer and yes, professor is certain to keep you thinking and learning!  I keep telling him I'm retired but obviously that just means to him that I have even more time to read and learn...

Water and LifeSo, I know you will not be surprised that this fifth edition includes some of his older poems but many of his new ones and more beautiful color photography!

Please note that the book includes poetry in both English and Italian. (Can't read Italian? Did you know that Caso also created the Kaso English to Italian Dictionary?)

I was intrigued enough by one of those poems to launch a brief internet search. I found that "Sonetto Semplice--Morte Li Luigina" was  in English "Sonnet Simple--Death Of Luigina."  You, see, I had been interested because the poem was just one word, repeated over and over... I had to know what it meant.  


...Sola...
      sola...
      sola!


The translation: 


Alone...
  Alone...
  Alone! 


I found myself weeping...


So, I thought I would try for another translation on the site--the Title Aprile, I felt, would be April...But I found that the words did not translate the same when duplicated. Then I clicked to have the words spoken. They were cold, lifeless...and I knew that the language could not be adequately shared by computer, no matter how wonderful they are. But for our Italian Americans, this is a wonderful addition, providing a touch of their heritage or home...


Adolfo's love poems are so wonderful to read. Let me share just a few lines from one of his longer ones:


I have loved you
with all my heart and soul
more
    than you could ever imagine,                        and then continuing with  


Love is not a word
not a fantasy.
It is there--
                   here!                                                     and ending


I want to love you
more than you can ever imagine
And when I do
and you are there
the words of love will explode
like volcanoes at sea
thrusting islands
into
                  the
                                     skies.






Caso speaks just as passionately about war, death...living! He takes you into a topic about which he strongly feels and forces you to share his thoughts, his opinions. Quoting just the first few lines of "Suicide Through Murder"


Blood
I will give
as water
enough to invigorate a boxer
for another round
Suicide
                through
                                   murder!

Or he shares the simplest of life's pleasures and makes them meaningful, such as in "Three M & Ms":

...
She  put her little hand into the bag,
And,
Withdrawing three M & Ms,
She placed them gently into my receptive hand.
...

Catching the moments of his life, Adolfo willingly shares them with all of us! It's an interesting thing about a book of poetry. You can read it one time and find words that mean something very special...

Then the next time you read that same book, some other words, new and vibrant, shout out at you...

This review presents just a sample of what is available in the latest, Fifth Edition of Water and Life: Photos and Poems in English and Italian.

Highly recommended to poetry lovers and even more so to those who measure life by the pleasures we find in our daily living...presented by Adolfo Caso...to family and friends...



Book provided
by Publisher


GABixlerReviews




2 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting book. It's hard to beat poetry and beautiful photography.

    ReplyDelete