QUATRAINS DE NOSSA SENHORA

XCII.

O príncipe adiciona

decorazones a su ropa

mentre que su país

non funciona.

The prince adds

decorations to his clothes

while his country

does not function.

21/10/2016

#poesia #portunhol #4linhas #4lineas #4lines

QUATRAINS DE NOSSA SENHORA

XCI.
Avaritia, avaritia quae
societatem nostram destruit,
hostis principalis est,
sicut semper fuit.

Greed, greed that
destroys our society,
is the main enemy,
as it has always been.

19/10/2016

QUATRAINS DE NOSSA SENHORA

XC.
Una palavra
de vida anterior
dizer debo:
sicut sol, evolutus collucebo.

18/10/2016

QUATRAINS DE NOSSA SENHORA

LXXXIX.
O mundo está invertido,
por los pies estamo suspendido
entre lo malo y lo temido,
sen tené lo prometido.

The world is upside-down,
we are suspended by our feet
between the bad and the feared,
not having what was promised.

17 de otubro 2016

STONE TOOLS

Stone tools, shaped by
human hands,
centuries ago
at least.
I find them
on the beach,
or in mossy
streambeds,
unrecognized by others.

They are mostly
for cutting or
scraping, for
cleaning hunted
game or fish.

The one thing
they all have
in common
is a comfortable
shape, carefully worked
to fit the hand.

The shells beside them
in the sand
are older life
by millions of years,
but do not bespeak
the hopes,
the labor,
the loves,
and the tears.

16 October 2016

THE SAND DOLLAR

What is the kiss of the sand dollar,
what its thought?
What is its bliss,
what has it wrought?

10/15/2016

PHOEBE, THE OCEAN, AND HAPPINESS

We've been here at the beach house for four days, and until today we hadn't turned on the sound system--the beach and the ocean had given us all the entertainment we needed. Today it's raining, and we wanted to hear some music. I asked Sandy to pick, and she chose The Best of Phoebe Snow--a cd we hadn't heard in years, though it was very beloved of both of us in the '70s. Poor Phoebe left us years ago, but she left behind so much delicate beauty, not to mention a humorous swagger that can only charm. Looking out at the ocean, I think it strange and unforeseeable that Sandy and I would be sitting here in a beach house in Uruguay, one of our two homes here, listening to Phoebe and looking out at our front yard, which is the ocean. Strange, not to be predicted, but wonderful. May you all be as fortunate. <3