"Longing came hurrying, a train I could never catch except for a glimpse, the smoke intoxicating my lungs in an addictive way until I was completely devoid of anything concrete, devoted to a ghost of demands. I braided words in my attempts to swim above the dark, bottomless ocean. A safety net taking me back a place I could call home, leading me to the lighthouse as a numb moth that takes every gleam for the sun. Now I share the rope for you to hold on to. " <br> <br>"Longing" is Giulia de Gregorio Listo's first poetry collection. Feeding on the absences that live inside us, her poetry seeks to translate what is it that we so deeply long for, our incapacity to find a proper name for this feeling, and how what lack in us is often what makes us whole.