Dulce maria Loynaz – Poeta Cubana

A poem by the Cuban Poet Dulce Maria Loynaz entitled “ Desprendimiento.  The translation is mine.

Dulzura de sentirse cada vez más lejano.
Más lejano y más vago…  Sin saber si es porque
las cosas se van yendo o es uno el que se va.
Dulzura del olvido como un rocío leve
cayendo en la tiniebla…  Dulzura de sentirse
limpio de toda cosa.  Dulzura de elevarse
y ser cómo la estrella inaccesible y alta,
alumbrando en silencio…

¡En silencio, Dios mío!…

Detachment

Sweetness in feeling more and more distant.
More distant and idle… Without knowing if it is
because things are leaving or if it is us that go.
Sweetness of oblivion like a slight
dew falling in darkness…  Sweetness in feeling
cleansed of every thing.  Sweetness to rise above
and be like an inaccessible and lofty star,
illuminating in silence…

In silence, my God!…

A Child in Joy

Crimson City

A statue fragment in La Ruinas de Copan, Honduras.  Picture taken in 2001.

A poem that appears in my book: Porcina – A Voice From the Shadows by Trafford Publishing.

Crimson City

Reaching out with arms
Made bloody
From a night of mourning.
I grasp at wisps of yearning.

Christ; but I have fought
The royal fight
And taken issue with
The blasphemies poured
Upon your name and
Lost one hundred nights of sleep.

Still, I am waiting
Here within the portals
Of this bleak and crimson city
By the shore.

Janice Ian and her impact on many lives

Browsing televison last night, I stumbled upon a show on PBS station WEON in Rhode Island where singer Janice Ian was featured.  I did a visual and mental double take when I saw her.  I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of her but the image of the 53 year old folk singer had an immediate effect on me.  I’ve always felt her song “At Seventeen” was a classic.  I was in my twenties at the time the song was being played. I had heard about this music phenom who had been recorded at fourteen.

I was immediately enthralled by the lyrics and the open honesty of her voice.  The first line, “I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens,” immediately hit a chord among many in my generation, and older.

I could have been a male model for the song, having endured a horrific childhood of physical and mental abuse by a father, who had, himself undergone a similar life initiation. My self image was abysmal. He had completely ripped out my value system and it has affected me in some form or another ever since.

Janice’s words were a life vest thrown out to me. It is no coincident that “At Seventeen” is in my computer’s music files. It never fails to bring me to a certain place, where I am my own person; where nobody can hurt me anymore.

The timing of this encounter is no accident. I needed to experience this, what with the brutal, continuing carnage in Iraq and the senseless act of the maddened soul that took so many lives in Western Virginia this week, my mind was desperately searching for answers.

Janice, of course, does not propose to have all the answers. But she certainly can provide a safe haven, where, for a few moments, we can immerse ourselves in her message, subscribe to her vision and emerge with faith confirmed.

I encourage you check out Janice’s website: www.JaniceIan.com.