ERES

“…como la tierra eres necesaria.” Pablo Neruda

eres como la ráfaga de sentir que vuela entre los naranjos,
como el horizonte de una tierra siempre lejana,
como la luna enrojecida de dolor,
eres como las nubes corriendo entre montañas,
como el vientre de mi madre;

eres como el suave sentir de un café en una tarde de otoño,
eres como la superficie de un espejo,
eres como el calor oscuro de mi pecho,
eres como el recuerdo de un beso,
eres como una nieve dulce en un verano ardiente;

como el pecho de una madona,
como un voto religioso,
como una monja en una cantina,
eres como la última nota de una ópera;

como la capilla en la montaña,
eres como el silencio,
eres como la imaginación de un niño,
como un adiós de amantes,
eres como la manzanilla;

eres como el interminable tumbo de las olas.

como el menguar y crecer de la luna,
eres como el saborear el mar a medianoche,
eres como el morder una botella;

como la lluvia en mi boca,
como el incienso,
como la niebla en la bahía,
eres como la luna reflejada en la mar;

como el cantar,
como el llorar,
como el sueño de un niño,
como el morir a solas,
como el comer la tierra, como seducir el sol,
como dormir a solas;

y a pesar de todo, solo eres,
y porque eres,
sigo siendo.

I give you this Day

I give you this day.

A spherical infinite view

Of colored rose petals on the water.

The slow scintillating sun on

Shimmering silver wings of

Desperate fallen angels.

The beat of my heart.

I give you this day,

And the finite number of infinite

Moments that engulf its being.

The resonant tremble of my

Memories of you. The seeing

Of my arrested emotions.

A day with only five seconds

To remember, and an eternity

To live through.

A day of soft sipping

Helados de nieve among the

Slumbering plaza benches

Covered in bougainvilleas.

A day as infinite as a child’s imagination.

The color of the air scented

With the morning breezes of life;

The smell of the morning fog

As it rumbles down the street;

Morning bread, clip-clop of

The horses, unending flapping

Of wings, songs of yellow-blue

Canaries on the backs of darkened

Earth-bound clouds, fresh carnations

And frozen dew drops on your eyes.

I give you the ever-ending moments

Which linger far beyond their life

And die giving all to this day;

This cover of sunshine, closed eyes

Among the crowds, serenity among

The hustle of bodies in the rain,

I give you the routinely elegant

Escape of the day, the predictable

Hope of thirst for everlasting

Raindrops on your tongue.

I give you this day covered

In the sumptuous assertion

Of life itself, the blink of eyes

Which transforms our worlds

In unspoken instances without

Order, the smiles that wash

Our beings into the rivers

Of our unpredictable

Destinies, caramel.

I give you this day

And the sweetness of itself,

The bitterness of itself,

The joy of itself,

The self of itself,

The drunken mumble of

Itself in laughter.

I give you a day

Of chamomile sips.

This one day of days.

This one luminous

Receptacle of a year’s

Worth of life, this one day;

I give you this life.

Good night sun,

Good morning moon.

I give you this day.

Azul – Blue

Azul – azul cielo, cielo, cielo y mar.

Canto, canto del suelo, suelo y cielo,

Cielo y mar, entre el mar y el cielo,

Suelo del mar, mar del cielo, azul.

Escucha el cielo, suelo de voz,

Voz del mar, entre el azul del suelo

Y el ardor del mar, suelo entre sueños.

Luna entre el mar y el cielo, sol.

Escucha el canto de la luna en el cielo,

Del sol dormido en el mar, del suelo

Resonando entre la tierra, canto, voz.

Azul cielo, azul mar, suelo ardiente.

Azul.

==

Blue – sky blue, sky and sea

Song, song of the ground, ground and sky,

Sky and sea, between the sea and sky,

Ground of the sea, sea of the sky, blue.

Listen to the sky, ground of voice,

Voice of the sea, between the blue ground

And the burning of sea, ground among dreams

Moon between the sea and sky, sun.

Listen to the song of the moon in the sky,

Sun sleeping in the sea, of the ground

Resonating in the earth, song, voice.

Sky blue, sea blue, burning ground.

Blue

Atli

met my friend Atli today. i first met him when i was visiting Iceland three years ago. he is now studying art in Akureyri. he is a talented man, and i found out today where all that talent comes from. i visited his father’s workshop in town. it is amazing the amount of equipment that is available in his workshop and what is more amazing is the variety of things he makes. road signs, canvas prints, tombstones. there is an enormous CNC machine that takes up a large room and i have no idea how they got it there. there is a cutter from the old Czechoslovakia. there is paint, stone, enormous number of tools. on top of all that his father (Tómas) is also a police officer in town and is part of the rescue patrol. so Atli is naturally multitalented, and has been involved in photography, painting, engraving and helping his father in the shop.

i will have to come back and visit his father for some portraits of him working.

when you live in a small town, you do what you can, and all you can.

Good Company, Good Coffee and Good Food, should never be far in your life.

well, it was bound to happen, yes, i fell on the ice. i made the mistake of leaving the house without my yaktrax. after all, how bad can it be right. i am happy to say my camera, however, remains intact 😉 so i just stretched a bit before going to visit my friend Anna Kristín and Úlfar at Cafe Klara (Book Cafe). they only open on the weekends for the moment, but it is well worth the wait. had an awesome coffee, and delicious bread with meat and butter. the best part of course, was the company. we joked, shared stories, laughed and generally just got to know each other, which is of course the reason for the food and coffee after all, they are just social catalysts – this explains why i am so chubby; i keep seeking social interaction 🙂20160305-_DSC0072

in the middle of the afternoon, we had a meeting at Listhús with all the other artists that are here for the month of march (there were six of total at the meeting although there are two more people coming in the next few days). we all had to do a short presentation on our work…i am humbled, and gladly so. there is so much talent here, that i only hope to be able to learn from these people as much as i can.

the list of artists is as follows:

— Carissa Baktay (Canada/ Portugal) | Ceramic artist
http://www.carissabaktay.com/
–Jessica Fertonani Cooke (Brazil /Italy) | visual artist
http://jessicafertonanicooke.com/#0
–Paula Faraco (Brazil/Germany) | photographer
https://www.behance.net/paulafaraco
–Rayn Wood (Canada) | photographer
http://frontierfoto.ca/
–Thomas Abercromby (Scotland) | textile artist
http://hausofabercromby.com/

and two more that are to arrive soon:
— Heliodoro Santos Sánchez + Héctor Miguel Guerrero
(Colima, México) | media artist

after the meeting i went back to Cafe Klara as they were waiting for me before formally closing – they only open from 1pm to 5pm but they waited for me until 6 – gotta love this place.

afterwards Alice Liu gave me some Chinese medicine  to rub in my back for the pain. i do hope it works as i definitely did not bring enough pain meds for this.

the other artists now know about Cafe Klara opening on the weekend so i hope to share more with them tomorrow over coffee, and good food.

Decompression on the way north

today was a great day as well. i walked around Reykjavik and revisited many of the sites i had seen before as well as found new places to experience. i found a wonderful little restaurant called Fish & More in one of the busiest streets in the city. it is small but the fish indeed were very good. served with vegetables, and as it turns out one of the staff had learned spanish in Mexico. they were happy to be able to practice a bit. you can tell those that have learned in spain as they have a distinct accent. there seem to be quite a few tourist in the city which is not what i expected this time of year. three years a go when i was here it was not this crowded. no souvenir shopping this time, just enjoying the walk and meeting new people. will go out again a bit later to get another walk in before bed time. i am also not taking an enormous amount of pictures. just trying to enjoy it all. i saw a piece of the berlin wall today as well as the building where reagan and gorbachev met in 1986. i learned it used to be the british embassy and now possibly haunted. what was real was the wind. it was howling and apparently not as bad as it can be from what i was told. unfortunately it means that when you open your car door it can slam the car next to you if you are not careful. my friend’s car was hit quite hard by the car next to us and now there is some damage :(.

 

but i suddenly realized today that i dont have to check my email every ten minutes. that i dont have to expect a call from work. that i dont have to go over issues in my head and how to resolve them. it is the next step in decompression. i think it was good. just one more day before flying north.

 

i think i will visit that fish restaurant again tomorrow, along with the black cat, a small breakfast place close to where i stayed last time (Hotel 101).

 

will post some pics later of what i came across today.