“Le ore eterne dell’attesa” (The Eternal Hours of Waiting) is Leonardo Manetti’s new collection of poetry, a journey into love as knowledge.
Love, the force that moves the world and reveals human fragility, returns to the center of Leonardo Manetti‘s poetry with Le ore eterne dell’attesa, published by Edizioni WE and introduced by a preface by journalist Antonella Gramigna, Director of The Gram Journal.
The title itself encapsulates the profound meaning of the work: the suspended time of love, which unites, transforms, illuminates and, at the same time, forces us to come to terms with ourselves.
In this new collection, Manetti abandons all artifice to reveal the nakedness of human emotion. Love is not just passion or desire, but becomes a path to knowledge, a space of truth and vulnerability.
The author accompanies the reader on a poetic journey of introspection, reflection, and rediscovery: a quest that starts from emptiness and arrives at fulfillment.
“Love, the force that moves everything, wears the clothes of awareness and knowledge” — thus begins the synopsis of the book, announcing the direction of an inner journey where the “lost find their light and complete each other.”
Three sections, one destiny: learning to love
The work is divided into three sections that mark the author’s emotional and spiritual journey.
- A life that is not life: the first part portrays the time of absence, the period in which the poet lives a dull, uninspired daily life.
- Through sober, clear verses, devoid of rhetoric, Manetti recounts the monotony of an existence marked by work and habits, where love — “the beacon that illuminates the night of the lost” — is lacking like oxygen.
- The days of love: in the second section, the awareness of emptiness becomes a quest. The author invokes love, praises it, calls it like a distant and necessary god.
- The wait, charged with desire and hope, becomes the emotional center of the book.
- The eternal hours of waiting: in the concluding part, love finally arrives, incarnated in the face of a woman.
- It is an encounter that upsets, saves, and hurts, opening up the discovery of the vulnerability and power of authentic feeling.
- The final verses celebrate the fullness and complexity of love, which does not always follow a straight path, but nevertheless teaches us what it means to be in love.
With a direct, elegant, and unadorned style, Manetti confirms his ability to transform personal experience into universal reflection.
His poetry springs from the earth and silence, from observation of the world and the simplicity of everyday gestures, but finds a broader, almost sacred breath in words.
Each verse is a step on the journey toward awareness, an act of honesty toward one’s inner self.
An author rooted in the land and in the heart
Born in Florence in 1981, Leonardo Manetti studied technical subjects, graduating in Viticulture and Oenology. In 2009, he founded his own farm in Greve in Chianti, dedicating himself to the cultivation of vines and olive trees.
It is from the farming world that he draws inspiration for his poetry: purity, cyclicality, care, and the patience of waiting.
A self-taught poet, he made his debut in 2013 with sChianti, followed by Gli occhi interiori, which ranked sixth in the 2017 Leandro Polverini Prize and the 2015 Emozioni Poetiche Prize.
His voice, increasingly mature and aware, continues to recount man’s relationship with nature, time, and love.
A book to listen to rather than read
