Letters from a Young Father

Poems

Edoardo Ponti

• Publisher: Red Hen Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781939096036
• eBook ISBN:
  9781939096067
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Italian Poetry
• Index: Literature

The Italian poet and film director shares a series of loving letters to his unborn child in this intimate and reflective poetry collection.

Becoming a parent changes everything. Fear and love live together. An expectant father desperately want to give his child happiness and safety—two qualities of life that are often at odds with each other.

Letters from a Young Father comprises forty letter-poems written by award-winning film director Edoardo Ponti to his unborn child during the forty weeks of his wife's pregnancy. These poems are gifts, lessons, slices of joy, blueprints for building a life, and insights into how we work, learn, love, and remember.

CONTENTS

Introduction (Written by David St. John)

Before the Beginning

Week 3 (At home, watching the leaves)

Week 4 (Holding a jasmine blossom)

Week 5 (After rain)

Week 6 (Up ’til 5)

Week 7 (Second office to the left)

Week 8 (In medias res)

Week 9 (Minutes before Monday)

Week 10 (Stuck in traffic)

Week 11 (In bed, hearing the shower in the bathroom)

Week 12 (In the elevator before my 11 o’clock)

Week 13 (In the front seat, waiting for your mother)

Week 14 (At a train stop)

Week 15 (On the leaking porch)

Week 16 (Beside your mother asleep on the sofa)

Week 17 (After a phone call with mammina)

Week 18 (A thought watching TV)

Week 19 (Can’t sleep)

Week 20 (After blowing out my birthday candles)

Week 21 (While swimming, this memory)

Week 22 (On a napkin with a broken pencil)

Week 23 (A hard day & now this)

Week 24 (In the rearview mirror)

Week 25 (Light while I write)

Week 26 (That song made me do it)

Week 27 (And this other song made me do this)

Week 28 (In Zürich in transfer)

Week 29 (With the ultrasound in my wallet)

Week 30 (Hearing laughter across the street)

Week 31 (Two days after April Fools’)

Week 32 (In Geneva, in a cab)

Week 33 (Day for night with a moon so full)

Week 34 (Back on the TGV)

Week 35 (Written in one breath)

Week 36 (Right before walking in)

Week 37 (Watching your mother apply lipstick)

Week 38 (Watching a gardener blow leaves off my deck)

Week 39 (Watching her smile)

Week 40 (In the waiting room with both grandmothers)

After All

Le...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction (Written by David St. John)
• Before the Beginning
• Week 3 (At home, watching the leaves)
• Week 4 (Holding a jasmine blossom)
• Week 5 (After rain)
• Week 6 (Up ‘til 5)
• Week 7 (Second office to the left)
• Week 8 (In medias res)
• Week 9 (Minutes before Monday)
• Week 10 (Stuck in traffic)
• Week 11 (In bed, hearing the shower in the bathroom)
• Week 12 (In the elevator before my 11 o’clock)
• Week 13 (In thefront seat, waitingforyour mother)
• Week 14 (At a train stop)
• Week 15 (On the leaking porch)
• Week 16 (Besideyour mother asleep on the sofa)
• Week 17 (After a phone call with mammina)
• Week 18 (A thought watching TV)
• Week 19 (Can’t sleep)
• Week 20 (After blowing out my birthday candles)
• Week 21 (While swimming, this memory)
• Week 22 (On a napkin with a broken pencil)
• Week 23 (A hard day & now this)
• Week 24 (In the rearview mirror)
• Week 25 (Light while I write)
• Week 26 (That song made me do it)
• Week 27 (And this other song made me do this)
• Week 28 (In Zürich in transfer)
• Week 29 (With the ultrasound in my wallet)
• Week 30 (Hearing laughter across the street)
• Week 31 (Two days after April Fools’)
• Week 32 (In Geneva, in a cab)
• Week 33 (Day for night with a moon so full)
• Week 34 (Back on the TGV)
• Week 35 (Written in one breath)
• Week 36 (Right before walking in)
• Week 37 (Watchingyour mother apply lipstick)
• Week 38 (Watching a gardener blow leaves offmy deck)
• Week 39 (Watching her smile)
• Week 40 (In the waiting room with both grandmothers)
• After All
• Biographical Note