Apple tree abstract by Patty Baker

I just really like this quote from The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich. Posting for on-going reflections and thoughts.

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

The Weight of a Snowflake

Author Unknown

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal mouse asked a wild dove

"Nothing more than nothing," the dove answered

"In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal mouse said. "I sat on a fir branch close to the trunk when it began to snow. Not heavily, not a raging blizzard. No, just like in a dream, without any violence at all. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,471,952. When the next snowflake dropped on the branch - nothing more than nothing - as you say - the branch broke off."

Having said that, the coal mouse ran away

The dove, since Noah's time an authority of peace, thought about the story for a while. Finally, she said to herself, perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world."

Victor Jara's last poem - Ay, canto que mal me sales (Canta Isabel Parra)

El Sur También Existe (The South Also Exists)

* English translation below

A Poem by/Por: Mario Benedetti

Con su ritual de acero
sus grandes chimeneas
sus sabios clandestinos
su canto de sirenas
sus cielos de neón
sus ventas navideñas
su culto de dios padre
y de las charreteras
con sus llaves del reino
el norte es el que ordena

pero aquí abajo abajo
el hambre disponible
recurre al fruto amargo
de lo que otros deciden
mientras el tiempo pasa
y pasan los desfiles
y se hacen otras cosas
que el norte no prohibe
con su esperanza dura
el sur también existe

con sus predicadores
sus gases que envenenan
su escuela de chicago
sus dueños de la tierra
con sus trapos de lujo
y su pobre osamenta
sus defensas gastadas
sus gastos de defensa
con sus gesta invasora
el norte es el que ordena

pero aquí abajo abajo
cada uno en su escondite
hay hombres y mujeres
que saben a qué asirse
aprovechando el sol
y también los eclipses
apartando lo inútil
y usando lo que sirve
con su fe veterana
el Sur también existe

con su corno francés
y su academia sueca
su salsa americana
y sus llaves inglesas
con todos su misiles
y sus enciclopedias
su guerra de galaxias
y su saña opulenta
con todos sus laureles
el norte es el que ordena

pero aquí abajo abajo
cerca de las raíces
es donde la memoria
ningún recuerdo omite
y hay quienes se desmueren
y hay quienes se desviven
y así entre todos logran
lo que era un imposible
que todo el mundo sepa
que el Sur también existe


The South Also Exists

With its ritual of steel
its great chimneys
its secret scholars
its siren song
its neon skies
its Christmas sales
its cult of God the Father
and of epaulets
with its keys
to the kingdom
The North is the one
who orders

But down here, down
hunger at hand
resorts to the bitter fruit
of what others decide
while time passes
and pass the parades
and other things
that the North does not forbid
with its hard hope
The South also exists

With its preachers
its poison gases
its Chicago school
its owners of the Earth
with its luxurious costume
and its meager frame
with its epic of invasion
The north is the one who orders

But down here, down
each in their hideaway
are men and women
who know what to grasp
making the most of the sun
and eclipses
putting useless things aside
and using what is useful.
with its veteran faith
The South also exists

With its French horns
and its Swedish academy
its American sauce
and its English wrenches
with all its missiles
and its encyclopedias
its war of galaxies
and its rich cruelty
with all its laurels
The North is the one who orders

But down here, down
near the roots
is where memory
omits no memory
and there are those
who defy death for
and die for
and thus together achieve
what is impossible
and the whole world
would know
that the south,
that the south also exists.

Translation found: http://ainoko.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/mario-benedetti-no-te-salves-el-sur-tambien-existe/