Category: Life:101

April is National Poetry Month:Day 6

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The Saddest Poem

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: “The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance.”

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don’t have her. To feel that I’ve lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn’t keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

That’s all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.
My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.
My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.

Someone else’s. She will be someone else’s. As she once
belonged to my kisses.
Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.
Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me,
and this may be the last poem I write for her.

April is National Poetry Month: Day 4

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Today’s poem comes from my 12 year old daughter. She has taken an interest in song writing . This is a song she performed at a local coffee house recently. She also submitted this piece at a local teen poetry contest and she came in as a finalist.

You’re Not Alone

She paints a pretty picture
But this story has a twist-
Her paintbrush is razor,
And the canvas is her wrist.

Her mother died a year ago,
Depressed and alone.
She wants to die
Bitter and cold.

She dances in the moonlight,
She’s the black swan of the night-
She leaps, prances, twirls, and dances
But she cannot stop the fight.

Your skin isn’t paper, so don’t cut it,
Life isn’t a movie so don’t end it.
Your face is so pretty, why do you hide it?
You have a beautiful soul, but you want to kill it.

Just know you’re not alone.
Stay strong
You are living one big lie
But in the end you will be alright.

by Raquel Brincat copyright 2012

April is National Poetry Month: DAY 2

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Today’s selection comes from Esther Star, a young woman I know with a powerful voice. She has been writing since she was little and now, at 17,  her voice continues to grow stronger and more captivating. She definitely has a clear message and that is why I published a few of her works in Salsa!  The Taste of Life. I love recognizing and helping young talent develop, that is an honor  and privilege I never take lightly. Check out her blog too! http://estherstar1996.wordpress.com/

I believe:
These two simple words
More powerful than a nation.
I believe in my rights.
I believe in true love.
I believe in fairy tales,
Dragons, talking animals,
And a God up above.
I believe in a woman president.
I believe in visions
In the power of dreams,
Two very different things.
I believe in long distance relationships,
And I believe in a first kiss.
I believe in my country.
I believe in homeschooling,
And I believe that I am weird.
I believe in dance,

I believe in laughter,
Even when there are tears,
And I believe in a shoulder to cry on.
B-E-L-I-E-V-E:
If I told you all of my beliefs,
You would be here for many more hours;
But now it is your turn
To state your beliefs.
What do you believe in?
-Esther Star copyright 2012

Salsa high res cover

HEARTS EXPLODE

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What causes a heart to explode
Bad news
Good news
Losing touch with its muse

What causes a heart to burst
A smile
A hug
A touch from a child

What makes a heart boom
A kiss from a lover
A love letter
Decimates all the gloom

What makes a heart blow up
Injustice
Violence
With no end in sight

What makes a heart fly into pieces
Tragedy and promise of love
Hatred and love divine
Darkness and light
Defeat and victory

We’re all living one breath away from :
Tragedy and promise of love
Hatred and love divine
Darkness and light
Defeat and victory

-Eva Santiago  Copyright  2013

Wild Things

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Wild things
They grow in the dark
They grow in the mud
They grow and multiply
Everyone has wild things
That they willingly deny
Wild things
They make our hearts race
They make us feel alive
They set the pace
Make you wanna fly to outer space

Wild things
We fear them
For they go against the norm
Of what we were taught
We never feared wild things
That was until the day
We learned to perform
And to not resist the norm

Wild things:
People
Places
Things
Wild things give us wings

And we retreat when they appear
Because the voices of should, shall and shant
Have instilled in us all a fear
Fear the wild things
They cry beg plead and implore,
“Don’t go there!” They scream,
“Don’t ever your world explore!”

Aahhh but explore we must!
For wild things beckon us to come out and play
Try this food
Play this game
It might be good
If you don’t try something new
You’ll always  stay the same

Wild things
View them as a babe
Who was just born
Slaves kills what’s wild
They’ve lost their sight
They fear what’s wild
Whipped into submission
By the rod of a misguided child

Wild things:
Embrace them is to live
You die when you choke them.

Eva Santiago copyright 2013

Pasión…

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She reached out and no one was there
Her hand stretches out
And all around is a void
She retrieves it
The emptiness kills
Her hope wavers
Like a flickering flame
Passion is trapped
Deep
Way
Down

It hurts
It stews
It brews

Adeepache
From whose clutches
Youcannotescape

P

A

S

S

I

O

N

Is a no man’s land
A place of no return
The few who survive it
Leave their heart’s ashes in an urn

The rest of us live in her clutches

A child is born from the passion of two
The artist’s canvas is covered
In many a hue
The artist’s passion seldom understood but by a few

Then there is the passion of the widower
He buried her a spell ago
In a cold charcoal coffin
Next to his childhood love
Who grew wings and flew to the heavens above

The passion of unrequited love is the cruelest of all:
To love only to see none of it returned
By one who knows of that love
By one so trapped by fear
His love grew wings and flew to the heavens above
Where he thought it would be safe
Where he thought no one would go
Then one day he saw-
Her-
Standing there right where he left her
And he grew much afraid
Leaving her behind was his biggest mistake
And now all these years later
High mileage in his soul
His fears drowned her
Deep

Way

Down

Deepinsidehim

That sort of passion
Is one you never recover from
Just like a strange fashion
You try to own it and wear it
And it never suits you
Aaahhhh but if only you’d listen to your heart
That sort of passion
Is where your life should end and not start

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

She Speaks and the World Listens

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She speaks and the world listens.
With soothing words on her tongue, she can calm the storm in another’s soul. Her eyes will caress you and hold you. You feel the fire in her soul. Her heart beats to the sound of an unheard drum. Only she can hear that beat and she doesn’t care that others don’t. Her hands create life and restore what was lost. Her touch is gentle yet firm and your heart melts when she embraces you. Her lips tell the truth and if they ever dare to breathe a lie it’s because she learned from Rahab that at times people are more accepting of deception than the truth that would set them free.

She’s been hurt. Her heart crushed to fine powder; almost beyond recognition. But her fortitude lies in the fact that she gave her demolished heart to her God and left it in His hands trusting Him to do what He needed to restore it. But God surprised her completely by giving her a new heart all together. Not because He couldn’t fix the old one. He restored to her a better heart than what she had- taking the good from the one she had and putting it in the new vessel He gave her.

 Sweetness and depth, this is all of woman; this is Heaven.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

This woman walks with her head held high because she knows the worst is over. She has tread in places that would have driven someone else completely insane. She has suffered but never in vain because she always took the good from the bad. She was given a gift to discern even the slightest hint of light in pitch dark places. No matter what she’s been through, she’s been able to find the dynamic in the demonic. She can see greatness in the smallest of things. What others will dismiss as trivial and mundane, she can find the unique and special in. The people society throws away are the ones she’s drawn to because she too knows what it was like to be discarded at an early age.

-Eva Santiago copyright 2013

 

 

MUJER HERMOSA

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Beautiful woman that you are
How could it be that you strayed so far
How could it be you never saw
That you are a brightly lit star

Beautiful woman that you are
Why did you walk on
Why didn’t you look in the mirror
Te escondiste en la mar.

Beautiful woman, lovely is your name
You’re all what they say and so much more
Now it’s your time go on and proclaim-
“I’ve changed for the better and I’ll never be the same!”

-Eva Santiago copyright 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THAT PLACE

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There is a place where no one knows if it’s day or night because it’s always light.

There is a place where no one cries because there is no more fight.

There is a place where no one dies
Because no one speaks any more lies
There is a place
There is a place
Where there is no fear
Because heaven is near
There is a place
Oh there is a place
Where the fires of passion burn
Where your longings churn
And nothing gets held back
And no one is slack

There is a place
Where lovers stop time
Give in to the chase
Where lovers stop time
See eye to eye-face to face
Lips on lips
Hand in hand
THIS is that place!

-Eva Santiago copyright 2013

 

 

 

This is THAT place!