Goodbye Senhor Saramago
“I insist that everything is biography. Everything is life: lived, painted and written.” José Saramago Saramago is a wild herbaceous plant whose leaves, in difficult times, served as nourishment for the poor. Saramago is also a literary genius. These definitions are not mutually exclusive since José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who died this morning, also [...]
Welcome to Haïti
I’m home. This landscape is mine: the fruit merchants, the colored vans, the dust. The heat is mine; the late sun. I’m home.
Conversation with the "Phenomenal Woman"
The "caged bird" has not stopped singing ~ for our greatest joy! Maya Angelou: Wisdom, generosity, grace, strength and joy all in one! To her I dedicate my poem "I Am Woman" "who owns me who owns my laughter i say no one a joyfulness of bells resounds deep inside me innumerable seas rise [...]
yesterday
say this is only a dream and afterwards morning say i will emerge from this shadowy darkness obstinately I grab the day in my teeth taking steps back growling but life pulls it away tearing it to shreds blindfolded in my dream i summon up names of streets places that witnessed my life and youth port au prince streets [...]
love declaration
In the gardens of my youth, trees were green and love was easy. Easy for me to feel, that is. That was before I realized others believed it was a war where all blows were allowed. Before it became apparent that unskilled as I was in such battles, love might become painful. In the beginning, [...]
of wine and roses
I love reading wine reviews. While some wine critics write well – and I enjoy reading inspiring and lyrical prose- the affectations of others and their utter nonsense make me hoot with laughter. So I’m happy either way. Witness the story (told by wine critic Jonathan Meades) of an American nouveau-wine connaisseur who was visiting [...]
bottled poetry
“Wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson Wine and poetry have always made great companions. In regards to poetry, I have willingly followed Baudelaire’s invocation: “Enivrez-vous, enivrez-vous sans cesse…Get drunk, get drunk all the time! On wine, on poetry or on virtue – just as you please…” and I’m very fond of the Omar Khayyam [...]
perfume
Smells can invoke memories, sexually arouse you, or even drive you mad… There are perfumes as fresh as children’s flesh, as sweet as oboes, as green as prairies, and others corrupted, rich and triumphant that sing the ecstasies of the mind and senses… writes French poet Baudelaire in Corrrespondances, while the great French perfumer Jacques [...]
violence
“All a poet can do today is warn” remarks the poet Wilfred Owen. Warnings come in varied ways. In “The People of the Other Village”, a beautiful, brutal poem written by American poet Thomas Lux in opposition to the Gulf War, these warnings come in the form of dark irony and cutting wit when he [...]
la joie après la peine…
Le Pont Mirabeau Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine Et nos amours Faut-il qu’il m’en souvienne La joie venait toujours après la peine Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure Les jours s’en vont je demeure Les mains dans les mains restons face à face Tandis que sous Le pont de nos bras passe Des éternels [...]
Mama Africa
Miriam Makeba died Sunday night of a heart attack after a concert in Italy. She was 76. It seems that she collapsed after singing her signature song Pata Pata. An enormous talent with a beautiful voice and a smile to match, she will not soon be forgotten. “I look at an ant and I see [...]
Happy Thursday?
Michele, Temar and FrancescaSometimes you don’t need a reason Not a birthday Not a holiday Just celebrating the day that is The friends that are New and old And the music that makes it allAllright…. Or as poet Lucille Clifton writes: come celebratewith me that everydaysomething has tried to kill meand has failed. So, Happy [...]
The woman in my bed….
I woke up with a French tune this morning: La femme qui est dans mon lit…The woman in my bed. Written by Moustaki for Edith Piaf when they were lovers, it is a song of praise for the older woman (she was nearly 20 years older than him). It brought back memories of one of [...]
Pleasure
I was oh, perhaps 9? the very first time I heard the word Fuck. Emmanuel, the school hunk, had cornered Caterina by the back stairs of Union School and said I want to fuck you. Fuck… Fuck… Fuck. I didn’t know what it meant but the intensity with which it was said stirred something in [...]
my dear friends
My brother Leslie once came back from Brazil with a gift for me. A cassette tape. Remember these relics of another age? Remember that flimsy brown strip of magnetic tape that would melt in the summer, snap in the winter and unravel when in a bad mood? To save our music, we learned the now [...]
Let me explain a few things…
Pablo Neruda is “the greatest poet of the twentieth century–in any language.” said Gabriel García Márquez Pablo and Gabo Explico algunas cosas (Let me Explain a Few Things), a poem written in fiery rage against what Franco’s troops had done to Madrid “And one morning, everything was burning” , is where Neruda traced his own [...]
Mon mal aviaire
Tous mes amisNe savent pas que j’ai la grippeCette chansonMon mal aviaire en temps d’oiseauxSi je la chanteC’est pour livrer ma voix au vent Je la reprends Le cœur enroué de trop aimerJe me fais tondreSous le gazon d’une voisineMa peur est bleueSous le ciel grand de mon pays Regardez bien Ce qu’en a fait [...]
Love and Defiance
“Bedil, weep not for your lossesthis party that is lifeis after all held in a glassmaker’s shop” AHMAD FARAZ enjoys a near cult status in the pantheon of revolutionary poets. Of him, Faiz Ahmad Faiz (the greatest Urdu poet of the last century) had said: “He protests against injustice as passionately as he professes his [...]
plain talk
i have carried you everywhereyou are thereon the tip of my tonguei speakand in the wordyou appearand flow through my mouth so many wordsyou sayfor a question so simpleso much wine for little thirst don’t be misled by the laughterhope surpasses the questionalthough i have sewn you to my soullove unravelsand i am at the [...]
Bourgeoisie?
“I need my memories. They are my documents.”Louise Bourgeois with her phallic sculpture Fillette I want to be like Louise Bourgeois when I grow up. At 96 years old and still working, bruised, battle-scarred Bourgeois is at once fragile and strong like the materials she uses to work: soft latex, fabrics, glass, wood, marble and [...]
Hanna
le bruit court sous la pluieet en un quart d’orangela terre fait le tour de la rumeur le bruit court que le venta soufflé tellement fortque le cyclonelarme à l’œila crié sur la villeun chant de cygnesigne d’aile cynique de fin du monde le bruit court que le venta enlevé le chapeaucirconflexe de l’ile tous [...]
La muse du poète
Nâzim Hikmet a écrit la plus grande partie de ses poèmes en prison. Une large partie d’entre eux ont été inspirés par sa femme Piraye. Ces textes lyriques, il les a appellé “poèmes de 21 à 22 heures” puisque chaque soir il lui écrivait des poèmes. Une manière pour lui de partager sa vie à [...]
Love in the air…
I fell in love with a stewardess up in the air I know I shouldn’t be doing this but I don’t care As soon as we’re back to the usual mix it’s clear I can hope, you can wish, but we gon’ switch gears Mr. Right right now, now that ain’t fair Fly by night [...]
august evening
sitting on a stoop amidst idle chatter and cigarette smoke waiting for you as i waited months before i know my heart will flutter when you pass by and say my name in the august evening breeze michele voltaire marcelin Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
