A lasting poem

"It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken on an immortal wound - that he will never get over it. That is to say, permanence in poetry, as in love, is perceived instantly. It hasn't to await the test of time. The proof of a poem is not that we have never forgotten it, but we knew at sight we could never forget."
- Robert Frost

Poesía - Jaime Sabines

Espero curarme de ti en unos días. Debo dejar de fumarte, de beberte, de pensarte. Es posible. Siguiendo las prescripciones de la moral en turno. Me receto tiempo, abstinencia, soledad.

¿Te parece bien que te quiera nada más una semana? No es mucho, no es poco, es bastante. En una semana se puede reunir todas las palabras de amor que se han pronunciado sobre la tierra y se les puede prender fuego. Te voy a calentar con esa hoguera del amor quemado. Y también el silencio. Porque las mejores palabras del amor están entre dos gentes que no se dicen nada.

Hay que quemar también ese otro lenguaje lateral y subversivo del que ama. (Tú sabes cómo te digo que te quiero cuando digo: "qué calor hace", "dame agua", "¿sabes manejar?", "se hizo de noche" ... Entre las gentes, a un lado de tus gentes y las mías, te he dicho "ya es tarde", y tú sabías que decía "te quiero".)

Una semana más para reunir todo el amor del tiempo. Para dártelo. Para que hagas con él lo que tú quieras: guardarlo, acariciarlo, tirarlo a la basura. No sirve, es cierto. Sólo quiero una semana para entender las cosas. Porque esto es muy parecido a estar saliendo de un manicomio para entrar a un panteón.

Jaime Sabines

Statistiche

La gente di solito usa le statistiche come un ubriaco i lampioni: più per sostegno che per illuminazione.
- Mark Twain

The Great Grand Uncle

A sad news. One of my Great Uncles passed away a month ago or so in Cuernavaca (a city 2 hrs from Mexico City). He was 96 or something like that. He was the youngest of all my grandmothers brothers and sisters. I believe they were originally 8 Perderzini Lazzeri: David, Inés, Lelia, Amelia, Bruno, Fernando, Tilde, Santos. I can't remember the order but it is something like that. My grandmother was Inés and she named her 3rd. son David, in honour of her older brother whom she loved very much. She died before I was born, however I got to know my great uncle David, who became, along with his wife Cuca, my nonos (Spanish tranlation of the Italian for grandparents). And that's how I got the name as well. However my family history may not be relevant to you so... nevermind. The point is he died and I just learned about it. Funny thing that around the date of his passing we were talking about him in a restaurant high in the mountain. I believe he was saying farewell...

The passing

A sad news. One of my Great Uncles passed away a month ago or so in Cuernavaca (a city 2 hrs from Mexico City). He was 96 or something like that. He was the youngest of all my grandmothers brothers and sisters. I believe they were originally 8 Perderzini Lazzeri: David, Inés, Lelia, Amelia, Bruno, Fernando, Tilde, Santos. I can't remember the order but it is something like that. My grandmother was Inés and she named her 3rd. son David, in honour of her older brother whom she loved very much. She died before I was born, however I got to know my great uncle David, who became, along with his wife Cuca, my nonos (Spanish tranlation of the Italian for grandparents). And that's how I got the name as well. However my family history may not be relevant to you so... nevermind. The point is he died and I just learned about it. Funny thing that around the date of his passing we were talking about him in a restaurant high in the mountain. I believe he was saying farewell...

Verities & Balderdash

hummings and hawings
To take a long time to make a decision

action will emerge from what will otherwise be almost unending hummings and hawings

To me it's better to deliver a rough and ready slide, which can always be improved in the future.

It is wrong to believe we can see the end of the road. We can only see as far as it bends.

I see now with the accuracy of hindsight that perhaps this was not the best course of action.


Verities & Balderdash
Balderdash - old fashined word for nonsense
Verities - belief or principle about life, the world, etc., that is accepted as true: the eternal verities of life. Old use for truth.

Omniscient

Poppy cock

Ambition and desire

Ambition and desire
There are those who desire something fervently. There are others who wish and long for things that to their eyes seem impossible to attain or achieve.

There are other who actually fullfill their wishes and desires.

However, the difference comes upon reaching that point when something is satisfied. For most it is the end of the journey, it is the mountain top.

But there are those, who are never satisfied. Thoses who ambition, whose thirst, hunger and lust are insatiable. Those, upon reaching the summit keep looking for something more.

Wishes and desires are ephimeral. Ambition is ever lasting. We all have unsatisfied wishes or dreams, but not all of us have ambitions. For ambition can never be satisfied since it is always replaced by a newer, higher object.

Therefore, those who wish and desire are ephemeral, and those who ambition are eternal.