Embrace

Dedicated to Nancy M. Popa

Biscuits on the table.

Tender hands on you,
Bright eyes on me:
Show me the way to your soul.

Written on September 2001, in Panama City, Panama

The Point

Northside of the World

Southside of the Sky
East End of Eden,
West End of Man.

Written on September 14, 2001, in Panama City, Panama

1
The Springtime of your Life:

Inspired by Printemps qui Commence (*) of Saint-Säens

Dedicated to M.

From below the Earth

Deep underground
A meaningless seed
Is lullabied by the warmth
Of your motherly womb
Called Earth

While an unstoppable
And irresistible impulse
Comes from within the seed
To go forth, up,
Releasing its priceless
Gift for all to see

And making a lovely union

A romance beyond description
With the elements around
Makes the seed grow
Breaking the cold
Expanding life:

Facing the Sun!

Green stem, bright leaves

Morning dew dances

2
On this Fairy´s fair
Known as

The Springtime of your Life.

Written on September, 2001, in Panama City, Panama

(*) The Beginning of the Spring, an Aria from the Opera “Samson and Delilah”

3
In the Eyes of a Friend

Inspired by Lulu

In your faintless eyes

It´s never too late
For a comeback
Or for starting
Again
Again and again
You comeback
And restart your life.

In your faintless eyes

I see myself
A part of me
Deep inside
that I deny

Yet I see myself In those eyes

I hear myself
In your voice
So crystal-clear
Your laughter
So transparent
So whole, so deep

Yet I see you again After all these years

Of rise and fall Through it all

4
And you look
at me
Hope comes from above
Hope to bring myself
Comfort from within
To open up my window
Let the light shine out.

In your wholeheartness
Your faintheartlessness
Your tenderness
And your strength
To be free
My inner well slows life
I open my source to calm
My inner drought
My vital thirst.

In your faintless eyes

I´d love to lose myself
And find myself
Within you
Now I understand
It´s never too late
To start
Again
My dearest friend.

Written on January 31st, 2003, in Panama City, Panama

5
Internatural

I. CORNERED SOUL

In the vertices of time, my feelings nest,

in the apices of space, my mind rests
eager for the cobweb-breaking light: YOU(*)

II. RELEASED SOUL

The sun melts the cobwebs

and the caterpillar flies
the cocoon is empty now.

III. PRODIGAL SON

I already looked my soul in the eye

and kissed goodbye evil in her lips:
Now I am coming back home.(**)

IV. GAS IN GLASS

Your natural gas

fills my radical glass
reaching our destination.

6
V. RAINY DAY

Under an overled sky

animals wonder and wander,
as purification becomes flood.

VI. SURF DREAMS

Easy as a bliss
the sea-surf caress
in my endless dreams...

VII. AIR AND FIRE

The spell of lightning

the smell of night breeze
fragrant and colourful airwaves.

VIII. NATURAL EMBRACE

The mist of my feelings

embraces your mindful soil
bringing forth the flowers of our love.

IX. DREAM HOUSE

Forest House,
Water Dreams:
Mind your House, Love your Dreams.

7
Written in the years 2003 and 2004. Additions on the year 2008, in Panama City, Panama

(*) Inspired by “Pájaros de Barro” (Birds of Mud) of Manolo García

(**) Inspired by “Regreso a Casa” (Back Home) of Moenia

8
Possibilities

I´m fishing memories

lying in the bottom
of the ocean of my life

Can´t catch the bird

of my past days
then it comes to me
in a betraying flight
to tear off my eyes,
covering me with shadow.

However, I can collect

some dirty pages
of my life
and burn them down,
Yet I am able to bathe
in your river,
where my memories
lose use for a while

May be it isn´t too late

to sow new seeds
in your fertile fields
to feed my mortal hopes
with your immortal faith.

Written on February 20, 2004, in Panama City, Panama

9
The Streams of Oblivion

With special thanks to Ida Puzone

The wastes of remorse

flow now
in the streams of oblivion,
while a dark sky
anticipates
a hard rain to be poured
washing away all the hardships.

Written on March, 2004, in Panama City, Panama

10
Jazz Variations on a Natural Theme

Dedicated to Nancy M. Popa and Maru Caseiro

I. Van Dam

Broken levees, dead dams,

dry, wasted reserves,
energy under threat of extinction.

II. Spring

Heavenly chant, like a spring

springing water from the mountain
the lullaby for my foreign heart
to drink and relieve its thirst.

III. Avis

Dance of fabrics, rainbow`s song

shining feathers on the horizon
whistling birds, masters
of the auditive caress.

Written on May 8, 2004, in Panama City, Panama

11
Aeolus Strummer

Inspired by “O du mein holder Abendstern” of Richard Wagner

I caress
the softness of dusk
gazing into my eyes;
I lean my yearnings
against cotton clouds
undone By the Northern Wind.
Located southside of the scorn,
only its consequence
comes to me
such a ghostly gust,
in my daily World,
a threatening eclipse.
Strumming strings of wind
I discover your voice
And in it, a thousand clues,
I learn through your Air Caresses
to give in to the ambush
of the Mermaid`s Song.

Originally written in Spanish on December, 13, 2004, in Panama City, Panama

Translated into English on the year 2005. Reviewed on July 18, 2009, in Panama City,
Panama

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Strips:

A discreet strip of sky

appears clear and celestial
before my eyes,
in the middle of black clouds
chaotically covering
my mediterranean horizon;
a fine strip of sea
serene and blue,
seeps through
your mournful procession,
threatening your cross
and encouraging my march.

Written originally in Spanish on February the 2nd, 2005, in Santiago de Veraguas, Panama
Translated into English on February 24, 2005, in Panama City, Panama

13
Final Journey

A journey
lean of deceit,
gross of reality,
whereon
my stoich maneuvers
pretend to
keep me safe,
reach my yearned shore
never to return...

Written originally in Spanish on March 9 and 15, 2005, in Panama City, Panama
Translated into English on June 2005, in Panama City, Panama

Craterous Hibernation

The ashes of my hopes,

they fall
upon the arid crater of your
oblivion;
below
a seed throbs and awaits
a rather improbable rain...

Written originally in Spanish on July 17, 2005, in Panama City, Panama

Translated into English on August 4, 2005, in Panama City, Panama

14
No Escape from Myself

Dedicated to Carlos Wynter

I mask my bones,
however I search like a hound
my dark corners
only to limit
that part of me
that I want to escape from.
You are there,
blinding temptation,
I re-make the escape
being reborn in my torment,
my reality is inside.

Written on August 2005, in Panama City, Panama

15
Fat dogs, thin dogs:

Poverty bags,
liberty rags,
wealth compromised
stealth and lies shed.

Subhuman microcosmos
of a rebel without cause,
big mind up in space,
thin body out in the streets.

An inner yell at life,

a claim against deaf ears.
In the cyber era
no one speaks your language.

The Master of Babel

tangles the versions,
strangles the visions
of simple bureaucrats.

Tied up in ties,
frozen over in his Bureau,
thin mind in the closet,
fat body at the City Club.

16
Eternal contradiction,
mixed priorities, twisted budgets
Bodies for lease, Minds for Sale
The rebels shall starve.

Written in Augut and September 2005, in Panama City, Panama

17
Racial Paradigm:

Inspired by José Vasconcelos

The One-Race Paradigm

is already broken,
inside the melting pot
the Cosmic Race
has been bred.
The Mestizo Paradigm
comes forth,
brand new human beings
sharing a Cosmic Dance
like newly-weds:
Are we prepared
to receive such a New Man
inside ourselves?
It is already You:
Euro, Mexican,
Yankee, West Indian,
Polinesian, Arab,
Afro...? and so on...
IT IS YOU.

Written in August and September 2005, in Panama City, Panama

18
Weed

In my nomadism,
sometimes hedonist
and often stoical,
weed took over
my chest.

In the aridity of my soul

weed turned into
dry, sharp leaves
stabbing my heart,
wounded, I refused to succumb.

Your eyes, crystals

and your heart, the sun
have consumed my weed
my chest is burning, the fire
forges something new within:

A precious stone shines right

where there once was
a bleeding and undone muscle,

out of infinite pain

there comes forth a strange redemption.

Written simultaneously in Spanish and English on October 19, 2005, in Panama City,
Panama

19
About Blake and Jerusalem

I.

Blake caresses in his dreams

strumming a harp of mist and wind,
trying to build his Jerusalem
in western land.

II.

I look at the generous sun

Of the Near East,
my dusty sandals
and I see that Jerusalem
Belongs to everybody
And everybody Belongs to Her.

III.

Blake, wake up
Take the sun with me,
let us knock at the door.

Written on November 2005, in Panama City, Panama

20
Crime Scene

The fingerprints
of a hybrid
popular conscience
hanging in the void
stained
by the bleeding
of a lost identity

The sharpened remains

of the generational
rupture
clip
Society`s hand...

Written simultaneously in Spanish and English on November 29, 2005, in Panama City,
Panama

21
The Four Horsemen

Tie-dye heart
Wall Street mind
Vatican memories
Copacabana body

Follow you heart

Relax the mins
Cut your memories free
Your body will follow suit

Save your Soul.

Written on October 21, 2005 and June 19, 2006 in Panama City, Panama

22
Telluric

Dedicated to Gorka Lasa

I.

The Social Pangea

creaks, gives away, wrecks itself,
sinking into the waters
of a particular massive autism.

II.

The delicate plates of tolerance

were strangely fitted
causing tremors of
centrifugal telluric suspicion.

III.

The last remains

of the Oceanic Garrett`s "Terra Firma"(*)
lie scattered between autistic waters,
separated by intolerant earthly fittings.

IV.

Insular realities
of individual existence
peeping up such pale memories

23
 of Mythical Continents
not even the Social Pangea.
V.

Inside the core, in the axis

a revolution is boiled over low heat,
the so-feared cataclysm will only be the refitting
of a new centripetal order.

Written originally in Spanish on June the 1st, 2006, in Panama City, Panama
Translated into English on June the 1st and the 9th, 2006, in Panama City, Panama

(*) “Dreamworld” by Midnight Oil

24
Met

Dedicated to Eyra Harbar

The flight of your imaginary bird

crosses my actual skies,
the crossbow of your imaginative eyes
drove its luxury arrow into my frugal heart.

Written simultaneously in English and Spanish on June the 1st, 2006, in Panama City,
Panama

Throb

Slow hands
on the willing heart;
under a scarlet sky
the ground opens wide...

Written simultaneously in English and Spanish on June 5 and 11, 2006, in Panama City,
Panama

25
The “Crash”(*) Factor:

1971

I GREW UP IN A SMALL TOWN.

The main feature of such life was the consideration towards your neighbour.

For instance, I remember that everybody knew who my parents were. Going astray as a
child was not a problem. In all cases a "bona fide" adult would take you back home.

1989

When I graduated from High School, the town´s population had amazingly doubled. In less
than 20 years we could see the first signs of FEAR, VIOLENCE and CRIME; however, the
town was still manageable.

2006

Now I live in a 2 Million Plus City, more than 150 miles from my hometown, still in the
same good growing country.

As the Cities (and countries) grow and prosper, we see how they "BABELIZE", people no
longer know each other "the way it should be", they don´t care either ... they just don´t want
to know their neighbour.

Trust has been lost gradually, common effort vanishes, the community no longer works
together, they leave it all to the government´s care. An increasing fear takes on when you

26
see more and more people who don´t look like your Parents, don´t speak with your accent,
don´t eat what you do, don´t dance your dances:

- HORROR IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER –

You feel invaded by hordes of opportunist aliens who come to steal like locusts the fruit of
your Parents´ work and Ideals.

THE FUTURE

Survival of prosperous, multi-ethnical urban centers (and countries) absolutely depends on

MUTUAL:

- RESPECT
- UNDERSTANDING and
- INTEGRATION

Is it impossible? I still don´t know, I´m figuring it out...

Written on July 24, 2006 , in Panama City, Panama

(*) “Crash”, movie from 2004

27
Exhausted Horizon
(Overwhelmed skyline)

Dedicated to my friends Eyra Harbar, Jairo Llauradó and José Luis Rodríguez-Pittí
Special acknowledgements to Heghedus Camelia

Overwhelmed skyline
exhausted horizon
a material saturation
bred among empty souls.

Concrete scrapes blue skies

whilst
cement steps tough on the soil.

Virtual delusion
gives away towards
visual pollution.

Some rare sort of senseless rush

deceives inconstant souls,
the automatic satisfaction
becomes a collective slayer.

Written on July 24 and October 23, 2006, in Panama City, Panama

28
The Invisible Menace

Dedicated to Yo Soy Cliff and Marta L. Sánchez

Prejudice outwitted a guard

full of self-satisfaction
under a disguised form of fear,
a distorted sense of menace,
a threatening Ghost of Hate,
then an Amnesia is justified
erasing that certainty which
it was there at the outset
and that a Houdiniesque Calendar
has altered into Absolute Doubt
under the sightless wakefulness
of the outwitted guards.

Written on November 6, 12, 13 and 16, 2006, in San Francisco de la Montaña, Veraguas,
Panama and Panama City, Panama

29
Incidental Music

"Everything is made in silence. Like

the light inside the eye."
Jaime Sabines

Dedicated to José Luis Rodríguez-Pittí and Mario García Hudson

This memory
incidental music
livening up
ordinary days.

that notion
borrowed chorus
unnamed glory
from the oblivion of ages.

A life is woven
out of rap and sampling
such a remnant´s spread

But you, incidental music,

have given sense

to such a life.

You are the

Clock-of-notice
Of

30
A death
to the effect, to the evasion
A return to the uterus
find the root
and your tonal key.

Written on November 2006 and January 2007, in Panama City, Panama

Reviewed on July 18, 2009, in Panama City, Panama

31
Caribbean:

A Brief and Subjective Salutation

"Ruge la mar embravecida

rompe la ola desde el horizonte ...
brilla el verde azul del Mar Caribe."
TIBURÓN - RUBÉN BLADES (*)

My pen is lifted and salutes the Great Caribbean, That one, as once J.J. ARMAS
MARCELO said, extended from the Mississippi Delta to the Amazon Delta, plenty of the
reflection of the sun in sands of extreme whiteness, fresh breeze sometimes wild, itchy
heat, plains, sugar cane fields and every now and then a shy and introverted mountain
range.

There, where the "beautiful faces of my black people" drink rum, chop sugar cane, play the
bongos, shake their hips. A melting pot of races, pre-colombines, europeans, africans,
asians and every existing race in-between.

Lands between waters, islands, peninsulæ and interinsulæ, bathed by carnivals, splashed by
blood and sweat, permeated by happiness and scream, between hunger and the non-
accomplished dream, I recall tropical dreams from Panama, dreams of fast talk, as I say
words full of oxygen and "riddim"(**).

Written on January, 2007, in Panama City, Panama

(*) Translation
"The stormy sea roars
the wave breaks on the horizon

32
the blue green of the Caribbean shines."
SHARK - RUBÉN BLADES
(**) Jamaican for "Rhythm" (cadenza).

Special Acknowledgements to Sonia Marcus Gaia

33
Terror

Dedicated to Sofia Santim and Javier Raya

In memory of all the victims of the gunmen worldwide

The external terror is barely the reflection of the internal terror. JEREMY, like a macabre "a
posteriori" prophet, echoes the signals sent by EDDIE VEDDER, words that tremble in
my guts.

The terror in the lost look of the gunman, who pulls the trigger perhaps looking "to be
somebody", victim or victimizer, of Fear, Prejudice, Intolerance, a Society much too
Consumist-Consumed by the Urge to SELF-SATISFY on Things, whilst the Empty Soul
with a Nil Inner life:

- Ignored
- Forgotten
- Swindled.

An inconcluded message sent by the "Jeremist" messenger in turn, whilst Prejudice hunts
for Ghosts of Terror outside; the terror inside goes out to hunt for prejudice.

Originally written in verse in Spanish on April 18 and May 5, 2007, in Panama City,
Panama
Translated into prose in English on the month of May, 2007, in Panama City, Panama

34
Nirmanakaya

Seven days in hell

seven years in purgatory
an eternal - and quittable -
Nirvana
for Endless Love
- Fire embraces me
scorches me –

Originally written in Spanish on June 7, 2007, in Panama City, Panama

Translated into English on the month of June, 2007, in Panama City, Panama

35
Fearsome

Dedicated to Salvador Medina-Barahona

A lifespan wasted in fear.

A quest for revelation,

Only dim lights outside
In the pilgrim´s night.

Romancing the Stone

Even when my dreams
Seem to sink like paper boats.

Written on November 2007 and April 2008, in Panama City, Panama

Reviewed on July 18, 2009, in Panama City, Panama

36
Moon Song

Dedicated to Eunice Shade

Tonight
The moon sings
I drink its light
Through my pores:
Electrobroth.

Wild I rise up
In a Moondance
Fertilizing dreams,

A sort of drought
Of the Old Souls.

Originally written in Spanish on November 2007, January 14 and April 28, 2008, in
Panama City, Panama
Translated into English on april 28, 2008, in Panama City, Panama
Reviewed on July 18, 2009, in Panama City, Panama

37
God Warriors

Deluge of fire
Cities under siege
No church left remaining
Only a desert
Endless drought
Where desolation dwells.

Written simultaneously in Spanish, English and French on December the 4th, 2007, in
Panama City, Panama

Magnetism

Dedicated to Poet José Córdova

Within the urban labyrinths

you find sharp corners
fields charged of electricity

¿Treacherous Magnetism?
¿Electric Surprise?

The sidewalk silently shelters

the secret sacrifice
of rubber and flesh.

Written originally in Spanish on December 18 and 19, 2007 in Isla Colón, Bocas del Toro,
Panama
Translated into English on January, 2008, in Panama City, Panama

38
Pocket Gods
(Vs.- Absolute Gods)

I´m Soul and Sailor

of allegory and voyage
a compass of categories
marks direction and change.

I come from absolute gods

of wrath and orthodoxy,
masters of narrow roads
only one direction and future.

I see a horizon “a la carte”

with pocket divinities
a suitable salvation
pay the toll and way so clear.

Invisible but tangible

a simple way shows
no tolls, free way for all.

- (Magnetic North`s
marked by the heart
beyond dependence
and illusion) -

Written in Panama City, on February 2, 2008, in Panama City, Panamas

39
Twilight of Race

Dedicated to Gorka Lasa

Your dreams swim

into heavy water
Acid rain
Fertilizes your stock.

I summon for
The Fire
And its Ritual
Cutting Time Free
From its kidnapping.

Thus a day ends

And the germ
Of Continuum
Peeps out…

Originally written in Spanish on May 19 and June 6, 2008, in Panama City, Panama
Translated into English on June 17, 2008, in Panama City, Panama
Reviewed on July 18, 2009, in Panama City, Panama

40
DNA

Dedicated to Roxana Arra

Egyptian smoke
Of an Atlantis fire
Ashes of mine:
Mayan embers
Still burning.

Written simultaneously in English and Spanish on October 29, 2008, in Panama City,
Panama

41