Ode To a Chestnut on the Ground (Pablo again)

From bristly foliage
you fell
complete, polished wood, gleaming mahogany,
as perfect
as a violin newly
born of the treetops,
that falling
offers its sealed-in gifts,
the hidden sweetness
that grew in secret
amid birds and leaves,
a model of form,
kin to wood and flour,
an oval instrument
that holds within it
intact delight, an edible rose.
In the heights you abandoned
the sea-urchin burr
that parted its spines
in the light of the chestnut tree;
through that slit
you glimpsed the world,
birds
bursting with syllables,
starry
dew
below,
the heads of boys
and girls,
grasses stirring restlessly,
smoke rising, rising.
You made your decision,
chestnut, and leaped to earth,
burnished and ready,
firm and smooth
as the small breasts
of the islands of America.
You fell,
you struck
the ground,
but
nothing happened,
the grass
still stirred, the old
chestnut sighed with the mouths
of a forest of trees,
a red leaf of autumn fell,
resolutely, the hours marched on
across the earth.
Because you are
only
a seed,
chestnut tree, autumn, earth,
water, heights, silence
prepared the germ,
the floury density,
the maternal eyelids
that buried will again
open toward the heights
the simple majesty of foliage,
the dark damp plan
of new roots,
the ancient but new dimensions
of another chestnut tree in the earth.

http://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/chile/misc/odas.html#Ode%20To%20a%20Chestnut%20on%20the%20Ground

Ode To Tomatoes (Pablo Neruda)

The street
filled with tomatoes
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera,
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhausible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth,
recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

http://www.soupsong.com/ftomato2.html

this is the 99th blog entry plus a tale about rainbows

Dear all,

it´s such fun communicating with you, I enjoy this and I do you hope tooo!!!!!

I have to mention something beautiful. On Tuesday on the motorway, I felt really sad for the one or other reason and was about to wallow in self-pity. That day, I found out that there seems to be a heavenly system sometimes!

Years ago, when I moved my stuff from Rome to Bonn, I was driving in a car missing Southern Europe and being scared of what was ahead and almost in front of my new home, a GIANT and very near rainbow was lifting up my spirit.

That hasn´t happened in a while until two month ago I thought I would never be able to adapt to my new professional position (not to mention the private one) and I found a new heavenly sign right in front of me in the fields next to the train that day. I took a foto with my cell and still need to get it ouf of there so I can share happiness with you.

And on Tuesday again, it was so beautiful I had to stop the car.

Do you guys have such signs or strange occurrences?

Apart form that, I found very nice people from southern America and Spain which is at minimum as uplifting as rainbows or joining my new friends to see them perfoming Tango, reciting their own poems in my preferred language and culture.

Or writing a few lines for you guys.

European Soccer games: SPAIN is in the finals!

Yesterday Spain won against Russia!!!!!

For those of you who are familiar with Spanish, here´s an extract from a spanish online newspaper:

::::::::Para empezar, España salió con una autoridad desconocida, batiendo palmas sobre mofletes rusos. Sergio Ramos fue el primero en presentarse: ha vuelto y sube. A partir de ahora creeré que Luis ha estudiado cada bufido en el departamento de psicología de Harvard:::::

I am so watching that game on Sunday! If you want to join, let me know :))))

besoo y buena fortuna Espanya,
Sam i.A.

my contribution to the world

Hi there,

apparently Sam has been very diligent here blogging these days, thanks dear! *giggle*


Apart from work - I wil spare you the details - there are so many things to think about from my side. What is tickling for 20 years already:

- aged 18 I wanted to live in Israel and still consider it an option, admiring a country that risks so much to be and to stay where it is now, later on also India for different reasons and Spain is something for the heart :)

- careers and charismatic personalities, I love following what we get to know about them. Are some of them happy, do you think they found THEIR thing?

- the inhabitated woman by Gioconda Belli is a fantastic story about a woman who lives a normal life until she falls in love with somebody and joins him regarding a political goal he wants to achieve (the result is a little extreme, I am aiming at what she discovers inside of her :) )

- the Daniel Pearl foundation

-some friends started getting involved in Africa projects, others are thinking about going into arts and religion

It is very difficult to express this with a few examples. Especially I don´t want to sound spoiled (the shere thought makes me giggle), bored from life or pathetic. I know that there is something outside there that will make me happy (which is now more probable since the circumstances of my life are more in balance than they were two years ago, I remember a day in Chicago when such thoughts would have been a delight instead of being close to a depression, sorry Keren and Ben you had to deal with my moods!). I still haven´t found my thing to focus on and whenever I am reminded of it, I feel like not really having contributed to the world.

So, in the spirit of soonissimo, I will start working on finding something that makes me happy. What is yours? Do you feel there is something to do, be it small or big, is there a chance for you to do that? Sorry for being a but fuzzy when explaining this, I will try to be a bit clearer any time!

A big hug,
Bridget

boy, do we miss Spain

I don´t know how it happened, but today is Spain day.

Ana Torroja singing 4 dias,
Mercedes Sosa singing Alfonsina y el mar
La Unión Lobo hombre en Paris


People speaking spanish so fast they start swallowing words so they finish their sentences in time
Air conditioning in the office

bus driver talking trash
kids dolled up on sundays

a coffee in the bar around the corner
a tapas bar in Madrid
Gabriel Garcia Marquez the writer describing a bar in Colombia that was open 24/7 due to the fact that it didn´t have doors

couples sitting in the sun violently discussing their relationship or the latest episode of a telenovela mexicana (sometimes it is hard to tell from afar)
waiting somewhere without really knowing why

spanish business people complaining about german business people coming late to a meeting
El Corte Ingles in its strange glamour and unique smell

Punica

Dear all,

our pomegranate is having its first fruit! Like a true flower-paparazzi I just tried to capture the moment. If you look closely at the branch visiting the neighbour pot you might be able to see it. What do we have to do to keep it growing apart from furry love? Anybody?

Birgit spent the last days in northern Germany, and finally starts sleeping well again, I haven´t seen her around in the living room much during the night for water :) I think she is doing well at work. I will enjoy watching the sky right now, whilst B is preparing to go to her favourite bar to grab something to drink with a friend.

A big hug and see you soon,
SAAAAAAAAAM