The Collins Poetry Residency is established in honor of the Richard Collins family and their contributions to and encouragement of poets and poetry in the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities and the Upper Mississippi River Valley. The residency supports community-based poetry and a regional poet who resides in the six-county Quad City area (Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Scott, Clinton, Muscatine).

2010 Poet-in-Residence is Salvatore Marici of Port Byron

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Saverio Minervini: Butterfly

Saverio Minervini is a first-generation American, born and raised in northern New Jersey. He works in the banking industry in New York, and is a graduate student in financial engineering. Over the past four years, he has been reading and studying poetry, especially the works of Pablo Neruda, Alda Merini, and Fernando Pessoa. He also reads and writes poetry in different languages and continues to broaden his literary understanding.

In the context statement, Saverio said, "I lived in Brazil for a short time, and while I was hiking in a forest, I saw butterflies flying from one flower to another. After researching butterflies, I felt they would be the perfect metaphor for betrayal in a love relationship. This poem was my way of combining the love emotions of purity and betrayal within the beauties of nature."

Butterfly

Graciously you land on my petals
Pollinating my veins
Extracting my every essence
With your presence
Gracious and sweet
Colorful and deep
With honey flavored lips we meet

Scared and frazzled
By the winds you’re dazzled
My bright and illustrious petals
Are now Dry, folded, and dreary

Till there is nothing left to surrender
you fly away
A messenger of God’s or a pretender
Towards the sunset
Over the tranquil pink clouds
Fanning me
With the cold winds of your wings
Brighter, healthier, and more gorgeous then ever
You fly away enroute for the next nectar.
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