latitudes del corazón

Se agrandó, a mi corazón ahora le cabe el mundo, 

elástico,

se expande y cubre pedazos de tierra gigantes

Palpita, con la cadencia de una sonata,

plácido,

acomoda días y noches sin el típico espanto

No espera, contempla el paso del tiempo,

confiado,

renuncia al forcejeo que entumece a los sentidos

Drena, llena los espacios encogidos del cuerpo

y, ágil,

suaviza... relaja mis dolidos pies y mis atadas manos

happiness for happiness

on this dance

i let you take the lead

and my happiness for yours

we trade

i let mine attend backstage

and with no heartaches

i sincerely cheer

for once

i allow some joy enter from outside

as i no longer reserve the spotlight 

in my dreams 

i observe you all

shine with a brilliance i didn't see so clear

and i silently smile 

as i realize

that my happiness is yours

numb

friends are dispersed 

some in distant latitudes of a similar nature 

others gone along paths millions of light years away 

from my own

Love has tired my patience

of that, no need to talk

Fraternal bonds under a question mark

what do they mean?

childhood memories stand on their fictional value

that's all

I'm gone somewhere

where I found nothing but myself 

stripped of all the blurry illusions I had built around me

I can only ask: 

In this quiet disaster,

why is it so hard to feel?

Recess of reason

I need to start a process of loosening
of un-tightening the knots
that have held together this safety net so far

I have to slowly let go of this long gasp of air
that has kept me alive

Releasing the heartbeats I've kept frozen

Stretching the legs of imagination and hope

For so long kept on hold now

I have to expand the scope of the feelings that are let out in light
I need to allow for a little excess of the senses
and a recess of reason
for a broadening of the scales of longing and expectation

I need to allow an increase of space around me
unconditionally
for a while

Let unbridged gaps span besides me
and lie

Rotundo era un no menos categórico; el tiempo y la vida lo hicieron testarudo y cerrado a las posibilidades. Durante años fue ambiguo y le gustaba andar mucho con signos de interrogación y puntos suspensivos. Hubo una época en la que siempre andaba escurrido entre líneas.

Fueron miles las paradojas en las que estuvo involucrado.

Hoy en día, reformado, no cabe duda, no hay de otra: No

Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game [Official Music Video]

Amy Winehouse

a new found voice for my thoughts

broken

there are kinds of pain for which words are not a valid currency
for which silence is hard and present
there are kinds of suffering that are only left for the champions
for those that have mastered the art of being broken
for those who have lost
along with their hearts and breaths
what they loved

Instrucciones para llorar, Julio Cortazar

Dejando de lado los motivos, atengámonos a la manera correcta de llorar, entendiendo por esto un llanto que no ingrese en el escándalo, ni que insulte a la sonrisa con su paralela y torpe semejanza. El llanto medio u ordinario consiste en una contracción general del rostro y un sonido espasmódico acompañado de lágrimas y mocos, estos últimos al final, pues el llanto se acaba en el momento en que uno se suena enérgicamente. Para llorar, dirija la imaginación hacia usted mismo, y si esto le resulta imposible por haber contraído el hábito de creer en el mundo exterior, piense en un pato cubierto de hormigas o en esos golfos del estrecho de Magallanes en los que no entra nadie, nunca. Llegado el llanto, se tapará con decoro el rostro usando ambas manos con la palma hacia adentro. Los niños llorarán con la manga del saco contra la cara, y de preferencia en un rincón del cuarto. Duración media del llanto, tres minutos.

on behalf

Spike Lee, Melisa Vargas\\Rotterdam, july 07

This was a coincidence, one of those nice ones
Not very often one can be close to great people that one admires

AN EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURE WHICH HAPPENED TO ME, VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY, ONE SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY

(Pushkino, Mount Akula, Rumyantsev Cottage, 20 miles down the Yaroslav Railway)

A hundred suns the sunset fired,
into July summer shunted,
it was so hot,
even heat perspired-
it happened in the country.
The little hamlet known as Pushkino,
Akula's Mount
made hunchbacked.
Below, the village
seemed pushed-in so --
its crooked roof-crusts cracked.
And beyond that village
yawned a hole,
into that hole- and not just maybe -
the sun for certain always rolled,
slowly, surely, daily.
At morn
to flood the world
again
the sun rose up-
and ruddied it.
Day after day
it happened this way,
till I got
fed up with it.
And one day I let out such a shout,
that everything grew pale,
point-blank at the sun I yelled:
"Get out!
Enough of loafing there in hell!"
To the sun I yelled:
"You lazy mummer!
in the clouds cushioning,
while here - knowing neither winter nor summer,
I sit, just posters brushing!"
I yelled to the sun:
"Hey, wait there!
Listen, golden brightbrow,
instead of vainly
setting in the air,
have tea with me
right now!"
What have I done!
For ruin I'm heading!
To me,
of his own goodwill,
the sun himself,
ray-strides outspreading,
is marching over the hill.
Not wanting to show him I'm afraid-
back I retreat, guardedly.
Now his eyes lighten the garden shade.
He's actually in the garden now.
Through windows,
doors,
crannies he spread;
in flooded a sunny mass,
having burst in
he drew his breath,
and spoke in a deep bass.
"I've withheld my fires you see
the first time since creation began.
You've invited me?
So lay out the tea,
and, poet, lay on the jam!"
Tears from my poor eyes were streaming-
the heat really made me scary,
all the same-
I got the samovar steaming:
"Of course,
sit down, comrade luminary!"
What possessed me to shout at him like a fool,
inwardly myself I cursed, -
and sat confused
on the corner of a stool,
frightened it might be worse!
But a radiance strange
streamed from the sun, -
and my tact
no longer taxing,
I sit and chat with the luminated one,
gradually relaxing.
About this,
and about that I chatted,
worn out with ROSTA publicity,
but the sun:
"Alright,
don't get so rattled,
see things with greater simplicity!
You think it's easy
for me
to shine so?
- If so, come and have a test! -
But once you go -
why have a go
go - and shine your damnedest!"
We gossiped like that till darkness appeared,
till the night before, that is.
For how could there be any darkness here?
And now
like chums we chatted.
And soon,
in open friendship bonded,
to slap him on the back I dared.
And likewise the sun
warmly responded:
"Why, comrade, we're a pair!
Come, poet,
let us dawn
and sing
away the drabness of the universe.
As the sun, myself I'll fling,
and you - yourself,
in verse."
And shadows' walls,
and jails of night
fell to its double-barreled shot.
Battering barrage of poetry and light -
shine out, no matter what!
And when the sun gets tired,
and night
wants to rest
its sleepy-headed,
why suddenly -
I shine with all my might -
and once more day is trumpeted.
Shine all the time,
for ever shine.
the last days' depths to plumb,
to shine - !
spite every hell combined!
So runs my slogan -
and the sun's!

no one wins

Alrededor de 8 de cada cien niños y niñas dominicanos tienen retardo irreparable, por una falta de atención al tema de la alimentación.

El porcentaje de niños menores de once años obesos en el Reino Unido pasó del 9,9 por ciento en 1995 al 13,4 por ciento en 2004.

Around 8 of each 100 dominican kids are irreversibly retarded due to a lack of attention to their nutrition.

The percentage of obese kids under 11 in the United Kingdom went from 9,9 percent in 1995 to 13,4 percent in 2004.

.............metro de santo domingo

foto: A. Despradel (2006)

Una vez más, encima de las heridas que a penas tratan por sí mismas de curar, otra incisión (quizás la más profunda) deja a la ciudad en carne viva

flying

copacabana beach.feb.2007

I am flying, today, tomorrow
yesterday, i was

the ground is not mine

no time
its gone

yo y mis en santo domingo

Soy yo y mi hija y mi hijo y mi mujer y mi trabajadora y mi balcón de mi apartamento en mi torre llena de mis vecinos (y sus carros) y mis carros en mi solar, en mi torre, tras mi verja, sobre mi vista al mar

nice things..... cosas bien

umbrellas.sombrillas
light bulbs.bombillos
typewritters.máquinas de escribir
pencils.lápices (a lot) (mucho)
cristals or jewelery stones.cristales o piedras para joyas (not real ones, just anything that looks like them) (no tienen que ser reales, solo que parezcan)
watches.relojes
bikinis
flags.banderas
beards.barbas
coffee makers.cafeteras
hardware stores.ferreterías (maybe because there you can find most of the other things I like) (Quizas porque venden la mayoría de las otras cosas que me gustan)
cotton.algodón
notebooks.cuadernos
boxes.cajas
scarfs.bufandas
bikes.bicicletas
small chicken.pollitos
handbags.bultos/mochilas/bolsos
(to be continued) (continuará)

boo

I was in Amsterdam some days back. Sunny day-rainy end. City and memory collide. Calm and rediscovery of the same place everytime.

fuerzas//forces

algunas vienen de dentro
y se oponen unas a otras
otras vienen de fuera como brisas de un huracán
aveces de un golpe
aveces en minúsculas dosis que poco a poco cambian las cosas
tantas en tantas direcciones
parecen solo crear
silencio


some come from within
and oppose each other
others come from outside like the winds of a hurricane
sometimes in one go
sometimes in minimal doses that little by little change things
so many in so many directions
seem to only create
silence

beginnings

- You have to fill your life with beginnings: of books, of relationships, of school terms, of jobs, of anything
-Why?
-Because that is the only way to fool boredom and depression

What about endings? (They both asked at the same time)

puntos cardinales // cardinal points

no hay punto cardinal para el centro

venir de ahi es venir de ninguna parte

de nada sirve un paraiso

en el mundo de las grandes ciudades

las playas son muy suaves

el calor no aprieta como el frio

las brisas de todas partes

vienen de los puntos cardinales

a los que no se pertenece

pasan refrescan y se van

nadie toma en serio una isla

mucho menos un fragmento

a nadie le interesa un paraiso

en el mundo sin eternidades

no sirve de nada

no vale de nada

venir del centro

//

There is no cardinal point for the center

coming from there is coming from nowhere

there is no use for a paradise

in the World of the big cities

beaches are too soft

and heat isn’t tight like the cold

breezes from everywhere

come from the cardinal points

to which there is no relation

they pass by and leave

nobody takes an island seriously

even less a fragment

no one is interested in a paradise

in the World without eternities

it is useless

it’s worth nothing

coming from the center

Nothing like stoping on your way, turning back and finding a known face... (click on them)