I was intrigued by the Brazilian Dia da Saudade, which was roughly translated as “Longing for What is Absent Day” so I went in search of a poem which might illustrate the feeling, and found “Before” by Ada Limón, which I hope is true to the feeling of Saudade.
_________________________________
Ada Limón (1976 – ) is the author of Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006), The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She splits her time between Lexington, Kentucky, and her home town, Sonoma, California.
_________________________________
To read Ada Limón’s poem “Before” please click here:
_________________________________
Before
by Ada Limón
No shoes and a glossy
red helmet, I rode
on the back of my dad’s
Harley at seven years old.
Before the divorce.
Before the new apartment.
Before the new marriage.
Before the apple tree.
Before the ceramics in the garbage.
Before the dog’s chain.
Before the koi were all eaten
by the crane. Before the road
between us, there was the road
beneath us, and I was just
big enough not to let go:
Henno Road, creek just below,
rough wind, chicken legs,
and I never knew survival
was like that. If you live,
you look back and beg
for it again, the hazardous
bliss before you know
what you would miss.
“Before” © 2015 by Ada Limón
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
Oh …
I had never heard of this holiday or the concept of this holiday.
Yet it was terribly apt today.
The first Brazilian woman I ever met is a bereft mother living in Massachusetts. She came here on a visitor’s visa in the early 2000’s and had a baby with an American man who later was described in court as an “anti-illegal-immigration activist.” To make a horrible long story short, I’ll just say she was deprived of her son. She is fighting off being deported and may be permanently separated from her child for no reason having to do with her as a mother or his best interests. I wrote to her this morning, hoping this day will be the last dia da saudade that she has to endure this longing for her child. And the last Saudade that he has to long for his mother.
I would never have known about the day, had you not sent us this poem.
What cruelty and betrayal, and its seems like it was calculated and deliberate. Some people really are evil.
I hope she gets to stay in the U.S., and gets her son back. It’s clearly the man who’s unfit to be a parent.