We all know how to draw a heart. According to some sources, the shape of the heart as we know it now derives from the Egyptian hieroglyph to indicate spirituality, emotions and sensuality. This aspect was inspired by the shape of the seed of the silphium (a now extinct fruit of ancient Cyrenaica used for its medicinal properties including that of birth control)

Nowadays we use its icon as an emoticon when we send a message or when we leave a loving thought for someone on the sand, in short, heart as a metaphor for love. But the heart is also a vital organ that dr. Vito Troiani, as a cardiologist, knows well and from which he found a source of inspiration. A collection of his poems is entitled “The folds of the heart”. Here is an excerpt:

The folds of the heart

Rhymes

of reflected sounds

that touch invisible corners

shadows without outlines vibrate

in the breath of an unfamiliar silence

while with a thrust

you spread lifeblood

to the wilted body.

Let yourself go.

Fill once again your sagging space

and release the seed that floods the valley

In your sweet oxygen

cells and vessels grow

tempers flow

emotions blossom.

Your tissue is not made of fiber only.

In your folds

a soul

as thin as the wind

twitches

midst the ashes of hope

hanging on tomorrow.

Big Bang

The hand trembled

upon the fruitful moment

the unexpected dawn

opened widely

the untainted pupils of the night

enlarged with space, generated the still moment

in an angry hot gasp

reality ignited the first instant

in the drunken lamentation

of a primordial sky

stretched out to take shape

the first expanding sighs

of the newborn time

dense atoms

slipped on the sharp lines of gravity

and distances were created

without borders

in curved algorithms

at the end

it was only balance

in the domain of dark matter

born from thunder

to become light.