The Silent Blue (A collection of poetry by Jason R Forbus)

Jason Forbus’s The Silent Blue (Il Blu Silente) opens with peculiar verses, pastoral romances and a hint of permanence renowned of Italian writers.

Divided into seven seasons, the book of poetry portrays a release from the ennui of time, enchantment, and pleasures of existence.The brevity of the poems are fresh, leaving the reader far more vulnerable than the poet.

The book is grouped into seasons spanning the sea, cosmos, pain, Haiku, dreams, myths and even the roguish love. From the commonplace to the contemporary to the cosmic, with craft and cleverness, the poet never shies away from the Romanesque eviscerating evocation.

One particular poem left a great impression in my heart as it glimpsed both reality and magic into a beautiful tale of sympathy. Bearing the same title as the book, The Silent Blue embedded in the Season of the Sea, offers a solid instinct of a rich imagery.

Per Gaeta di notte (In Gaeta at night)

la tramontana: (the north wind blows)

sorta di freddo ululare, (sort of cold howling)

divoratore di spazi. (devourer of spaces)

Ma è in silenzio che il blu, (Tears stream from heaven)

succo amaro del cielo, (Dampens the bitter sky)

inonda le strade . (inundating the roads)

e l’osteria solitaria. (and the solitary inn)

Oh, a cosa pensi marinaio? (Hail to you, sailor)

Non è il mare ma (That’s no sea)

il blu silente, (The Blue Silence)

inghiotte tutto (swallowed them all)

– anche il vino – (Wine too)

non dà mai niente.

Niente

( Thanks to my husband and Jason for the Translation)

Forbus’s alternating fascination with romance, language, and culture presents a translucent imagery of one of the most romantic communes in central Italy. Gaeta, set on an isthmus stretching the bosoms of Lazio, the magnificent Italian province evinces awe by evoking the epistemological of this world. Too much of the poetic talent evident in The Silent Blue stays free in the intersexual and intellectual air.

Forbus delivers one great line after another. “The north wind blows,” as “sort of cold howling”, its melancholic whimsy echoing verse after verse; or the idea, that “devourer of spaces,” barely contains the incipient threat of an encounter between humans and nature. The poem makes us care. The theme of Gaeta and the sailor toys with a language that suggests a vulnerable atmosphere.

The antimatter is the particular reference to the tangible frontier where the wind wanes as the sailor recounts his mates. To understand Forbus’s simultaneous desolation and consolation, the reader is often asked to take a glimpse by a voracious telescope into the mind of the sailor as he loses his mates in the majesty of Gaeta’s sea.

The Silent Blue is a Mediterranean delight of Italian poetry served with a masterful verse of culture. A prelude of a young poet into the world of competitive literature.

Jason R. Rorbus

A native Roman born, Forbus graduated with a degree in languages and literature in multimedia communication from the University of Cassino Italy. He currently works as a translator and an English teacher at the British School Institute in the Latina province. His Book can be purchased from Lulu publishing website for $ 10.96, Direct Link.

And the effect was amazing

Mary Yoon-Cao