A Happening at The International Literature & Translation Festival FILIT,Iași―24th of October 2025
I performed perspiring ― oh, what brings about passion!!! for the word, for children ― tiny drops of perspiration falling from your imagination into being on your forehead and your soul, then around your neck as if you would read, read & read with your whole body, not alone with your lips & teeth & lungs ― for the little children, as you can see in the photo below, not at all comfortably sitting on a too soft pillow beside them, because when you perform you cannot be comfortable at all and the little children were walking around undisturbed by the writer, even running to and fro, because they are brimming with energy, and, at times, sitting and standing and, sometimes, also listening very attentively, as if my words were golden and blindingly shining up to their faces, so their eyes were confused as I read them a little & the short story Uiu―The Bad One, and their faces not lit with smiles & also filled in some instances with fear, but the very little one started to cry & whine, too small for such a performance with a baaaaad, really baaaad character that would turn kind if she might have listened patiently up to the end of the story, but where can you find patience at the little one? & she summoned me to go away with my baaaaaad, ugly & stupid story as she was shedding tears of fear in the arms of her mother.
To my amazement, I drew into my magical reading circle some teens and youngsters that seemed to like my (story)telling ― se them in the photo at the beginning of this article ― and I asked them if they wanted to listen to another one, one more, as if I were a pop star in front of a cult audience craving for the sounds of their ido. To my amazement, because I thought that the age range should be from five to ten, a student, a master student, yes, they wanted more, so I read another story from ”Cartea lui David” (David’s Book) with stories about / with my son, David-Thomas ― when he was a child discovering the world ― and they applauded.
Happy was now the gathering. And I saw a sparkle in their eyes that brought to my mind: evening is setting in. And stars will start shining. And I asked them if they wanted even more. Poems for adults. And they wanted. And I performed poems in Romanian and English. And also told them stories from long ago when ”you were not even in the project!”, as I joeked. And then we went to have a tea or a coffee, now sitting comfy on chairs at a table, away from the too soft pillows only good for a nap, and I continued for more than an hour with my performance poems, until the sun finally declined to shine any longer. And I hoped dearly that this didn’t happen because of my continuous recital of poetry. Nightfall. The evening brought stars to our eyes. One of the enthusiasts was Medeea. Later, poetry ended. And we took a photo of the poetryhappygroup and somebody wanted also the book to be seen in the photo. Yes, you can see David’s Book, proudly held in Medeea’s hand. And along with her, her brother, Mihnea, and a friend of theirs. So, in the end, after the long but not lengthy poetrytorture, I felt that I had to sign for each one of my poetry collections.
I had the feeling that poetry won a battle that day.
A battle for survival. Filit house, Iași, 24th of October 2025
