Amadeu Baptista - Sobre a Beleza

This long poem was first sketched by the author during his hospitalisation in January 2022 at the Vila Nova de Gaia-Espinho Hospital Centre, following a stroke.

A testimony of lived and remembered experience, what unfolds and is revealed in these verses is the capacity for resilience and wonder that, even in a moment of crisis, was still possible to find in someone who preserves all their questions about the many crossroads of fate, as well as their capacity to dream and to be stirred, despite the constraints faced in the ongoing surprise of being alive. The poem is accompanied by a selection of photographs by Alfredo Cunha which, rather than merely illustrating the poetic sequence, harmonise with what, though finite, endures in each of us — as a search, a provocation, and a fearless gaze upon the mystery that our innocence builds and affirms.