Paragraphs coming

Thank you to everyone who sent me their descriptive paragraphs.  I plan on putting them up today or tomorrow, and if you still wish to submit one, I'll take it.  If I've already uploaded the paragraphs, I can add it in an edit.  Cheers, all

Would you like to write desccriptive paragraph?

A writing challenge for all who are so inclined: in the next day or two, observe someone - a stranger if possible - in public, describe them, what they are doing, what you think they are thinking about. Just a paragraph or two. Send it to me an email and I will put all of them on my blog without any names. It might be interesting, and being anonymous might give you a little more freedom in your writing.

The upcoming novel by Javier Marías

I haven't found much about this in English, but the Spanish papers and blogosphere are abuzz with news of a new novel. “So Bad Begins”, the new novel by Javier Marías, comes out in the Spanish-speaking world on September 23, 2014, published as usual by Alfaguara.

Javier Marias states this about his new novel: "It's a book about desire as one of the strongest engines in the lives of people, which sometimes overrides any loyalty, consideration and even respect in the treatment of others. Another theme of the novel is the impunity and the arbitrariness of forgiveness and no forgiveness. The idea of ​​justice demands that people sometimes have much to do with the act itself and that does and does not affects us.”

Please note that translation errors from the Spanish sources are entirely my own.

you carry a sword

In a world of text message embraces
And social media heart-to-hearts
You carry a sword

At your side

And you hold a flower in your hand,
The flower of peace and strength
For your friends

And the gleaming sword...

The words of so many people
Are like claps of thunder
From a receding storm,

Meaningless reverberations.

But your words are the blade of your
Flashing sword, cutting true and noble
Into the wall of suspicion,

The barrier I have built.

For we lock ourselves in our own prisons
Waiting to be freed, not strong enough
To sever our own chains, needing

A sword of comradeship.

Let us leave the imperfect
To the imperfect,
And sally forth,

our heads held high,

Our blades at our sides
And our hearts true and ready
In friendship

Flowers in our outstretched hands.

poem after watching my daughter swim

She skims like a swan across the water

as fear evaporates into a dark cloud

and is blown away and scattered.

The white dresses of passing feminine time

loom in the distance, one possible

harbor on her adventures.

Yet, other paths open up and an archipelago

of unpredictable futures stretches out along

the horizon. Each stroke of the swim

Moves her closer to the bounty of her choices

but as she glides, the opposite edges of the island

chain become harder to steer toward.

Progress cuts off possibility, but still she swims,

the swan out on the sea, traversing her life

toward her awaiting destiny.

On which island will she land and how long

shall she tread upon the sea?

Swim, my swan, to destiny.

Luis Fernando Verissimo

Luis Fernando Verissimo writes amazing books.  Here is a great interview with him from the CBC.

poem 21 July 2014

A soft flow of sweet milk drips down

from the vault of the sky,

from the stars

Onto the dry crust of thirsty bread

that is the baked earth,

the land.

I have kissed her cheek and her hand

and with my own hand

carressed her face

And numbered and named the celestial

bodies just to see the corners

of her pouting lips

Raise up like unattended balloons

with strings cut by jesters

and without anchors.

Then the drip of milk becomes a trickle

and the bread of the earth

cracks and crumbles

But the stars in the sky persist,

the stars forever flowing

and her lips rising.

RR Shea