Instructions of having a soul - un poème de Joseph Fasano
Joseph Fasano est un professeur et écrivain connu majoritairement pour ses poèmes et ses romans. Le texte ci-dessous est un de ses poèmes publié le 8 mars 2025 sur son compte Facebook, communiqué avec son autorisation.
Joseph Fasano is a professor and a writer mostly known for his poems and novels. The text below is one of the poems he wrote published on March 8, 2025, on his Facebook account, communicated with his authorization.
Source : www.fasanoacademy.com et http://josephfasano.net
Instructions for having a soul
Take it out in the rain sometimes.
It has vast, invisible wings that gather dirt
and need rinsing.
When it tries to kill you
that is because you’ve forgotten
to let it look into someone’s eyes
for longer than a minute.
It needs that the way a bee needs nectar
in the early morning dew.
Every so often, take it on a journey.
Let it read long, hard books
and let it stare into the depths of the sea.
Yes, you can give it chips and whiskey
but from time to time let it kneel
in a place that is holy
like the simple cathedral of the willows.
All it wants is to live, to keep becoming.
Nourish it, and puts down roots, it opens.
But starve it, and the mind, the flesh is empty;
the world breaks down; symphonies go unwritten;
the rocket fall; the children die
in flames
Listen. It's not too late
to wake it. Say the names
of the wild, the forgotten things:
bluebird, red wolf, robin; violet, child, clover.
You cannot save the world but you can open
the window for the trapped wren in the cellar.
Read a book to a blind man, to your father.
Tell a child you do believe her anger.
Make your life the first life that you save
- Joseph Fasano