Teresinka Pereira

Biography:

Teresinka Pereira: Brazilian-American poet, President of the International Writers and Artists Association (IWA), President of the International Congress of the Society of Latin Culture.

She received from the Knights of Malta Sovereigh Order of St. John of Jerusalem the hereditary title of "Dame of Grace", signed by the Grand Prior S.O.S.J. Dom K. Vella Haber (Malta, January 8, 1997). January 1999 she was appointed Senator of the International Parliament for Safety and Peace. Dr. Teresinka Pereira received, in 1985, the noble title of Dame of Magistral Grace from Dom Waldemar Baroni Santos, Prince of Brazil, for her literary merits.

Teresinka received a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of New Mexico, USA, and in 1997 received the Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the University Simon Bolivar, in Colombia. In 1972 she received the National Prize for Theatre in Brazil, in 1977 she was nominated Poet of the Year by the Canadian Society of Poets, and in 1992 was nominated Personality of the Year by the Brazilian Writers Union. She was awarded a golden "Laurel Wreath" as "Laureate Woman of Letters" from the United Poets Laureate International (UPLI). In 1994 she was the winner of the Su-Se Ru International Literary Magazine Company Prize in Korea, and in Greece, she was the winner of the Prize City of Athens. Also in 1994 was elected Director of International Affairs of the Society of Latin Culture. Since 1989 she is a member of the North American Academy of Spanish Language, corresp. of the Royal Spanish Academy.


1. Enigma

Once I jumped out
of my rose skin
and modestly
entered the fountain
of crystalline enigmas.

Since then I remain unknown
but I have the impetuosity
of a loose ocean
and phosphorescent pupils
to engender
the most daring dreams.



2. Death

To Cheo Seung-Hui*

Your tears became the rain
that mournfully inundated
heavens and earth with a
deluge larger than the
biblical flood prior
to your destiny.

I can only imagine
the darkness of your rage,
untimely and incurable,
the painful wound that
awoke with you
and which you laid out to share
the sacrifice.

The fury of your innocense
made the whole world tremble
leaving so many doubts
and false understandings.

Now that you are in peace
and have rendered your tears
to us, I forgive you for not
being able to decipher
the temporal pretext for living.

* Cho Seung-hui committed suicide
after shooting and killing 32 people
and wounding others at the Virginia Tech
University, April 16, 2007.



3. Nothing

Nothing is a long time
in the waiting room
in grief and sorrow
every morning.

Nothing is returning
to the emancipated breath
of freedom under parole.

Nothing was hope
in the lobies of time,
the fever in my tongue
and inside my body.

Nothing is this life
of strayed eyes and this
almost extinguished
flame still shining
in case that you
decide to love me.



4. Poem For Someone
Who Is Sorry For Me

Just a moment, please!
The night sleeps calmly.
Why do you want to annihilate
the silence of the infinite?
Leave my anguish alone,
let me protect myself
from your perfidious hopes!



5. Anna Politkovskaya

I hold the security agents
that detained you in Chechnya
February 2001, guilty
of violating your human rights.

Today, receiving the news
of your death, I imagine you
in a pit for three days
without food or water
while a military officer
threatened to shoot you...

Finally they did it
on October 7, 2006. Now
the whole world celebrates
your life and death
against oppression.

You don't need any extra words
in a poem about you.
you are the bravest poetry
any human being would love
to have the courage to become.


© Teresinka Pereira