Mill-ħemda tal-masġar: Ġabra ta’ poeżiji fuq is-siġar

by Terence Portelli (editor)

published by Klabb Kotba Maltin

Ever since their creation, trees have served their noble purpose: that of providing fruit, shelter, magnificent landscapes and what have you, in spite of the frequent abuses inflicted upon them, the uprooting, massacres and wanton destruction at the hands of man and even nature itself. Evergreen or deciduous, they represent an iconic symbol of an eternal spring and the inevitable autumn of our lives.

Trees have contributed immensely in art, with painters such as Constable, Gainsborough, Corot, Pissarro, Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and innumerable others; in literature a terrific boost came from many great poets, such as Keats, Wordsworth, Leopardi, Baudelaire and our Dun Karm Psaila, not to mention all the other Maltese poets who, in one way or another, have been inspired by trees to create some of their best and finest verses.

A vast number of poems written by 64 poets

Terence Portelli has taken it upon himself to collect a very large number of poems written by Maltese poets, all inspired and dedicated to trees; in a hardcover tome superbly printed by Klabb Kotba Maltin.

In an expansive introduction, Portelli romps personally and professionally into nature and its inherent relation to trees and to humanity itself, to art in general and on to poetry in Maltese literature.

Terence Portelli has taken it upon himself to collect a very large number of poems written by Maltese poets. Photo: Shutterstock.com

This latter serves as a dramatic prelude to what is to follow: a vast number of poems written by 64 poets, each one singing his or her own praises to the trees, a wide spectrum of feelings, emotions, bitterness, elations, disappointments, sorrow and joy, all the sentiments that trees can evoke in the human psyche.

Prevalent is the spirituality that ekes out of every poem, in utter harmony with what trees physically provide to mankind, a harmony that mankind very often ignores and, sadly, abuses.

The book ends with short biographical notes about the poets, to thus bring down the curtain on one of the best and finest collections of poems I have had to pleasure to enjoy and own; a book I strongly recommend not only to all lovers of splendid poetry, but also (and even more so) to all those who, like me, venerate nature and trees themselves.