Educational project in memory of the plane crash of June 26, 1959
eleven anonymous works written from 2009 to 2020,
never rewarded as deservable, but anyway significant

 

The twelfth edition of the educational project in memory of the plane crash in Dante Alighieri school of Olgiate Olona has been postponed to 2021/2022 school year, in any case subject to being able to carry out the conversation in class in the presence of students and teachers of literature, given the persistence of COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic that - allowing a remote lesson without direct interaction with the protagonists - affects feasibility, formula and outcome of the educational project.
From the inestimable treasure of the 1.110 works written from 2009 to 2020 by Olgiate Olona’s students in the eighth grade in the eleven editions of the educational project, a shortlist has been drawn: eleven works (one per edition) remained anonymous - since not among the 110 works awarded as deserving, those better interpreting the historical fact of June 26, 1959 and the spirit of the commemorative events -, but anyway significant.

 

 

1st EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2009/2010

 

Non perdiamo l’abitudine

(let’s not lose the habit)

 

Let’s not lose the habit
to pass on the most important pieces of history.
So many innocent dead lives, but with an immortal soul.
A past story will continue into the future as well.

 

2nd EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2010/2011

 

Presa di coscienza

(consciousness)

 

I am lost here,
my eyes are lost
in the smoke and fire
of remembrance.
My heart between gasp
and tears for those who
are no longer here.
Now I know that
life is a moment,
to live is also to die,
life is love and solidarity.
It would be nice
if all the dead
of the world
(massacres - slaughters - forgotten wars)
had memory
them too and
had not died in vain.

 

3rd EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2011/2012

 

Io lo vidi

(I saw it)

 

I was there when it happened.
I saw it
It was afternoon,
a rainy summer
afternoon,
the drops tapped
on the thirsty branches of the poplars.
I saw it...
In the sky
wrapped in a blanket of clouds
a plane flying majestically.
And then lightning
a tragic outbreak.
I saw it...
enveloped by flames.
I saw it...
Devastated on the ground.
Seventy broken lives, seventy immortal lives
who live within us within each of us
in a memory of solidarity and love.

 

4th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2012/2013

 

Dolore

(pain)

 

We heard
the silence of the whole country,
then desperate
soft screams
we heard.
Moans broke free
in the air
and serene faces
became gloomy.
As evening fell,
in the humid and
steaming air
a sweet cry of prayer
arose.

 

5th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2013/2014

 

Siamo con voi

(we are with you)

 

We were just two young people
who wanted to have fun being together.
We enjoyed flying and visiting the whole world.
But a bolt of lightning deceived us and
the euphoria of our flight was abruptly transformed.
Anxiety, terror and crying
and then, in an instant, nothingness.
But now we say thank you for your remembrance.
And every time you will mention us
we will be there next to you,
invisible, immortal and - we reassure you – happy.

 

6th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2014/2015

 

Quel giorno c’ero anche io

(on that day I was there too)

 

I am standing, petrified, I no longer hear noises around me.
My eyes are closed and tears wet my face.
I went back to that day with my mind, I was a child and I played carefree in the meadows of the town.
My nose up, I looked at the sky. So many fantasies and dreams in my child’s heart!
I would have liked to be on one of those metal birds to reach infinity.
Suddenly a devastating noise that I have carried inside me for a long time, or that perhaps I have never forgotten.
Instinctively I thought that something bad had happened and I started running, and I kept running even if I had no more breath in my body and the worst feelings took over everything, I remember I was afraid.
Suddenly fire, smoke and devastation in front of me, so i realize that my dream has broken down and everything has stopped around me.
There is no more room for the lightness of my thoughts because that afternoon of June 26, 1959, seventy people reached that infinity that naively made me dreaming.
I open my eyes, now I am a man, and I no longer dream, I wipe my tears and place a flower on the tombstone that remembers that day.
I look up at the sky and I make hello with my hand.
Rest in peace poor broken souls!
I close my eyes again and reflect on
fragility of life, and I feel so helpless.

 

7th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2015/2016

 

Anime

(souls)

 

There, up in the sky, a trail of smoke.
Souls soar in the clouds,
they breathe in the wind.
Souls passed from glances to memories.
Souls of a broken life.
Souls whose body is faceless.
Souls with projects destroyed.
Souls who met a fateful fate
that was not theirs.
Souls with an unlived life.
Souls, 70 are counted.
Souls of that fateful Friday 26th.
Souls, who even in memory,
now they are just ... souls.

 

8th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2016/2017

 

L’angelo della morte

(the angel of death)

 

People,
small points in the universe, such an immense universe.
The plane crash of June 26, 1959,
was not a massacre of innocent people,
but a fatal accident.
It was not just a plane that crashed on the ground of Olgiate Olona.
Those people had plans,
those people had close relatives,
waiting for them at home.
And never they could think of them dead.
On that leaden day with a weeping sky,
black snow settled on the land.
A crash, a sudden noise!
And then... just ash.
Metallic foils covered
torn bodies on the cornfields.
And for that unborn child
hugs never given, cries never heard
and first steps never taken is what remained.
The angel of death
who spread its white wings for the first time in the sky,
to hover towards its goal,
that same day he closed them
and caused seventy new stars to appear in the sky.

 

9th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2017/2018

 

Per voi

(for you)

 

This poem is for you.
This poem is for you who suffered so much.
This poem is for you who could do nothing.
This poem is for you who, because of a lightning bolt, are no longer with us.
This poem is for you who, despite being strong, were weak and defenseless in that moment.
This poem is for you who thought of everything, except that the plane crashed.
This poem is for you who are in our hearts and always will be.
This poem is for you.

 

10th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2018/2019

 

Non è come sembra

(it’s not what it looks like)

 

Science is in everything,
be it beautiful or disastrous,
in the lightning that took the lives
at the end of carnal existence
that silences mortal life,
but echoes the spiritual memory:
do not forget what can hurt.

 

11th EDITION - SCHOOL YEAR 2019/2020

 

Pioveva dolore

(it was raining pain)

 

It was raining pain under the rubble.
Those poor souls carved into the ground,
they were afraid.
It was inevitable to hear the sound of their voices.
Heavy rain joined the tears
until everything was obscured and nothing remained.
Only an empty hole remained,
empty of love, empty of hope, empty of life.
That unmistakable pain was in everyone’s eyes.
Their lives have not been lost,
they are carved in our hearts
and no one can forget the anger of the sky that afternoon.
That day it was raining heavily.
It was raining pain.