About

I’m João-Maria, a relatively young person from littoral Portugal, somewhere near Lisbon. (CALIATH) is a repository of my disperse writings in the (ENGLISH) language, as well as lithe translations of obscure or recent Portuguese authors. A repository of similar purpose is currently being created for works in Portuguese. 

If you’re so inclined, you may contact me in this-here page, or by emailing me directly at joaombailao@gmail.com. 

I also write prosaic fiction under the name Nikodem Lanci. All prosaic texts in the website are stylistically similar. Poetry, however, is divided in cycles, from most recent to oldest: (LINKS TEMPORARILY DYSFUNCTIONAL DUE TO DOMAIN CHANGE)

(empyrean cycle):
notes on the creative corpse;
on evolving;
hipomenos and his inner god;
poetry;
our lady of the haze;
inhabit;
on atomity.

(motional cycle):
katabasis;
the whole spring;
smoky balances;
to taste of salt;
mum is a leopard;
emperor julian’s bandana;
catkins.

(memnos cycle):
seven poems of Japanese aesthetics;
paladin, 17;
dusk;
anxiety 1;
reticulated;
a silence in which no one sings;
alluvium.

Other poetic projects include just loose, spontaneous poetry, and compositions designed around visual art from acclaimed painters.

A dedicated reader may want to contribute to the maintenance of the website or to the encouragement of continual written creative production, and in which case, that reader may use the button below:

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(The insertion and/or reproduction of oeuvres belonging to other authors, be it in translation or direct citation, are done so with the singular purpose of dissemination of that work and, simultaneously, the discussion of such work, be it that discussion is continuously permitted and encouraged. The blog author does not commercialise nor receive any compensation for the reproduction of such works; in case they are copy-written, the owners of such intellectual estate may, at any moment, request its removal; unless stated otherwise, any other content in this blog is authored by João-Maria and copyrighted as such)

27 thoughts on “About”

      1. Thank you, too! I love how you give depth to your pieces… and how eloquent you are. It’s an honor to be your first fan! haha

        Liked by 1 person

  2. I appreciate that you liked my poetry. But I am surprised how you derived the essence as it is in Gujarati Language.
    You are a contemporary writer and having varied forms of expressions in your literature. Hearty congratulations as you make this world better through your crativity.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hi, Smita!
      I cyber-translated your poem, which isn’t the most adequate form of translating at all, but it does allow me some general sense of the poem. I do this because part of my academic journey has been in linguistics, and it’s really interesting to me to not only discover new and unique languages, but how creativity is showcased by them. Sadly, with Gujarati, the alphabet is too dissimilar to any alphabet I can read in, and I require a translator. Still, now revisiting it, it’s a magnificent composition full of accited textures and that final balanced resignation of knowledge/ignorance is beautiful, to me.
      We have so many wonderful tools in this new digital age. Thank you for your compliments and I extend all of them to your — very important — cultural and literary work.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. Thank you so much Smitha ma’m. I’m new to this platform and started reading your poems. There is so much in your lyrics. Superb writings.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Hi! Please forgive me…I thought you are in your 40’s or 50’s as I go on your poems. The structure and thoughts are so unique and matured. Wow…!!! I’m amazed and so glad to know your site. How times have really changed with the younger generation teaching their elders. Cheers!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hahaha, there’s most certainly nothing to forgive. I oft get comments on my English but very rarely on my age. There are uncapturable aspects in youth that surely exude a certain aura and percolate along the works, and I’d like to think such puerile quality still inhabits me in some of my eventual expression. Though, I understand what you mean; I’m perhaps not the archetypal 20-something foe. Hopefully, age provides me even further clarity in these flits of self.
      Thank you so much for your kind comment, truly.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. IPA – International Phonetics Association, which, if you were familiar with, would help me better exhibit through symbols what my name sounds like ([ˈʒwɐ̃w̃]).
        Portuguese displays a high degree of vocalic vowel expression with nine vowel sounds and four nasal vowel sounds, in contrast with, for example, modern Hebraic, which has five ([o, i e, a, u]), and English has 14-15 vowel sounds, which is enormous and one of its biggest features.
        Neither English nor Hebraic have nasal vowels, however, and vowel nasality is not a common thing at all among world languages, but it exists in Portuguese and French, for example.
        João is difficult to pronounce for non-natives, including those of the links you’ve provided, because of that very nasality, and because Portuguese has another exclusive phonological feature, which is called “glides” or “semivowels”, in this case, “w”, which is the semivowel of “u”. To illustrate, no English syllable has a vowel radical, which means basically that every English syllable has one core vowel and one consonant sound. In Portuguese, and specifically in the word “João”, you have the syllable “ão”, which is a syllable exclusively made of vowel sounds. To achieve this, we have something called vocal reduction, which cuts vowels in half around the core vowel. In this case, we would have waw, something like “uau”, but you must pronounce the u’s so softly you almost can’t hear them. By lowering your palatine veil, as you would to produce an m or n in Hebraic, you make a nasal sound which you can sustain with your mouth closed (hence why you can hum the m sound but not the v or p sound). By doing this, your a becomes nasal and so does the last u, or w. The first u is not nasalised, because the nasalised syllable is the ão. So, essentially, my name is pronounced Ju-ã-m. That last nasalised u is so reduced that it becomes a hum; it is produced with your mouth closed and entirely from your nose. This is the part that every non-native gets wrong in João, cão, pão, etc, because no other language has vowel sounds produced with a closed mouth. It’s rather unnatural.
        And yes, it is an Hebraic name! It shares its origin with Yohanan and, of course, John.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Hi!
    I recently came back to blogging 3 days ago and I remembered I had a super talented acquaintance (someone whose blog I read everyday) and I should check whether ‘Johnny’ was still active. And I felt so happy as soon as your page came up to see how much you have grown as a writer! Proud of you João-Maria, I hope you get all that you aspire for, waiting to read more amazing work of yours!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Oh, thank you so much! This means so much. I think I remember you too. I’m not as active as I once were, but I hop on once in a while. I hope your creativity is rushing once more.

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