And If You Should Leave Me

And if you should leave me
I would say that the ghost
Of Cassandra
Has passed through
My eyes
I would say that the stars
In their malice
Merely light up the sky
To stretch my torment
And that the waves crash
On the shores
To bring salt-stings on
My face:
For you re-connect me with
All the lights of the sky
And the salt of the waves
And the myths in the air.
And with your passing
The evening would become too dark To dream in
And the morning Too bright.

Ben Okri, March 1986.

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

Anne Lammot
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

My timing is off

Día de los muertos.

Están los fantasmas de los que se fueron de verdad pero me cuidan. De los que siguen por ahí y me atormentan más que los otros; muertos vivientes, fantasmas de lo que hubiera podido ser, zombis que se comen mi cerebro sin siquiera estar cerca.

Una historia de cómo las cosas no hubieran podido acabar peor.

Parting

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

Emily Dickinson

I want to be a member of The Cloud Appreciation Society

WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned
and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

*

We think that they are Nature’s poetry,
and the most egalitarian of her displays, since
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

*

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.
Life would be dull if we had to look up at
cloudless monotony day after day.

*

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the
atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of
a person’s countenance.

*

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.
They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.
Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save
on psychoanalysis bills.

*

And so we say to all who’ll listen:
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!

(www.cloudappreciationsociety.org)

Telegrama para el 2010

Llegaron personas nuevas, que me sorprenden todo el tiempo. Por las que estoy muy agradecida.

Se fueron otras. Unas temporalmente y en busca de sorpresas. Otras, para siempre en medio de un silencio inexplicable. Por estas personas también estoy agradecida.

Se fue un gato y llegó otro. Se fue un trabajo y llegará otra cosa. Viajé a celebrar un cumpleaños y a perseguir a mi banda favorita.

Di regalos y le dije a varias personas que las quería. Unas me dijeron que me querían también, otras, otro, todavía se quedan callados.

Un año de personas, viajes, regalos y gatos.

¿Y al amor? ¿Ese tipo de amor? No, nada, otro año sin amor. Otro año en el que no sentí nada. Lo único que siento es que desconozco mi alma con más frecuencia.

And so, in his wisdom he said