Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming back Bulgarian poet, writer and visual artist Gabriela Manolova, the winner of our “Patterns” poetry contest with “Plastic Pilgrims.” This poem recalls a paddleboarding excursion on the Veleka River, which runs from northern Turkey into southeast Bulgaria. Surrounded by nature, Gabriela finds a quietness and an awareness of human connection with our environment.
“So we still our paddles,/ forgetting where we meant to go,/ and watch—and miracle!—/ not just watch, but see.// Branches stoop/ to touch their reflections—/ old women’s fingers rinsing/ their green-leafed grandchildren./ Lily pads float, invisibly tethered/ to the earth’s slow breath.”
Humankind has become estranged from nature over centuries of “civilization,” resulting in an anxiety-laden existence that is relieved when we slow down to study and delight in nature’s patterns. The elegance and richness of Gabriela’s imagery, the still mood of wonder she creates, and her gentle alliterative music with soothing repetition and rhythm encourage us to look for the wildness around us, even and especially when that wildness makes us feel out of place. when we stumble onto the sacred, our reverence reminds us that we are part of nature too.
Read “Plastic Pilgrims” in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, Vol. 7, No. 4, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
A lifelong dreamer and lover of language, Gabriela Manolova (Sofia, Bulgaria) began writing in childhood as a way to process thoughts and emotions. With a background in linguistics, she works as an administrative translator between Norwegian, English, and Bulgarian, and offers developmental editing for emerging novelists while exploring her own fiction. When not immersed in words, she can be found swing dancing or hiking.