The Seaman's Death, by ​Edilson Afonso Ferreira

Island Funeral, by N.C. Wyeth (USA) 1939

The Seaman’s Death 

They were worth a lot, the five years that the painter kept in his  
memory and heart the scene of a maritime funeral procession,
that took place on September 11th 1934, in Teel’s Island.    
It had been a lapse of time in which he honed and trained his brush, 
until 1939, enabling the birth of this masterpiece. 
In true, like some others, he had not seen, but heard about,
the transport to the island for burial of a 96 years’ lobsterman, 
a remarkable event, remembered long afterward. 
The man, one that his family was the name of the island, 
where he was born and had lived all his entire existence.
In a bird’s eye perspective, both grave and lyric, we see the collision, 
also the coexistence of two worlds, the sea the man had much loved 
and the mainland with so hard a hillside to be climbed. 
The sea was liquid and bright to honor him in this day, 
the earth, substance and shadow, ready for his rest. 

​Edilson Afonso Ferreira

​Edilson Afonso Ferreira, 78 years, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than in Portuguese. Widely published in selected international literary journals in print and online, he began writing at age 67, after his retirement from a bank. Since then, he counts 181 poems published, in 287 different publications. Has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize 2017, and his first poetry collection, Lonely Sailor - One Hundred Poems - was launched in London in 2018.  His second book Joie de Vivre – Caressing our Joy, with fifty new poems, has been launched in April 2022.  He is always updating his works at www.edilsonmeloferreira.com.