The Starcatcher

Canción November 4, 2009

Filed under: Songs, birds, exile, music, poetry, silence — patriciadominguez @ 12:59 am

Preguntas por qué guardo silencio.

¿Qué soy para tí?

¿Un ave que canta mientras vuela entre las ramas?

¿Una canción que te arranca un sonrisa?

Te gusta mi canción ¿Por qué no mi silencio?

Esto soy.

No siempre puedo sonreír. No cuando sé de la oscuridad de mi alma.

¿Qué piensas si no escuchas el canto del ave?

Cuando callo presto atención. Cuando callo escucho las lengguas del viento.

A lo lejos.

Cuando callo te miro. Y te siento.

Y vivo ese momento que se acaba.

No quise que se fuera entre palabras.

No quise que se perdiera entre el vuelo de las sílabas.

El ave lloró. Más por ella misma que por la soledad.

La soledad ya no le asusta.

Consejera y amiga. Enemiga y celadora.

Sola pudo volar muy alto.

Sola vio lo que no vio nadie más.

A veces, suspendida entre las nubes, pienso en tí.

¿Acaso no se pierde lo que veo, si no puedo mostrártelo?

Cómo quisiera mostrártelo.

Y no encuentro palabras. Y los recuerdos se pierden.

Preguntas por qué guardo silencio.

En el silencio están las respuestas. El silencio es armadura.

Pájaro de hierro.

Impenetrable.

Como llamaradas de luz muestro lo que soy ante ti.

Las llamaradas se disipan, ¿me ves inmóvil?

¿no ves que sí me muevo?

Esperas la canción, la de mi alegría.

A veces soy canción, a veces otoño.

Entre el susurro de la hojarasca descanso.

Cierro los ojos y los oídos.

La música cesa.

¿Escuchas el viento?

Mírame.

 

On being lonely October 30, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — patriciadominguez @ 3:04 am

If you feel lonely, you said

You are not comfortable with yourself.

Your own company is not enough.

You need someone else to fill the silence with noise.

I didn´t reply. My silence was an answer to myself.

I can live alone. I’ve spent my life alone.

I have enjoyed my silence. Secrecy.

I have enjoyed my growth.

And then one day, I travelled far.

I found myself, I found my way.

I learnt to enjoy life.

My life.

And I saw the beauty in the world.

The spider nesting in the flowers.

Raindrops falling on my skin.

Clouds of gold blinding my eyes.

The wind speaking to me in a million tongues.

My spirit was filled with beauty.

I was overwhelmed by joy.

But I was alone.

Happiness is complete only if it is shared.

 

Awakening April 17, 2009

Filed under: Life, Loss, strength, tears, tristeza, women — patriciadominguez @ 3:49 am

What do I say to you now? I was stupid, I was rude, I never talked to you enough and now I can’t. I look back: I let almost thirty years go by. What use is love, if love can’t save you? What use is love if I can’t do anything for you anymore. I can’t soothe your pain. I can only hold  your hand. I can’t believe my eyes can still cry. I don’t understand life. I don’t understand pain. I don’t understand anything at all.

What do I cry for? What do I laugh for? What do I love for? It will be over all the same.

Wake up, get up. Let’s go out for a walk. There is a park near here. I want to show you the trees, can you feel the wind? Hold my hand, I’ll lead the way. Feel the grass under your feet. Smell the flowers, smell the breeze, feel it tousle your hair.

You don’t listen to me anymore. Look at me and don’t understand. I can’t ease your pain or your discomfort. I can’t do anything but look at how it all ends. I stand there, in the middle of nowhere, staring, helpless.

I am afraid. I am afraid of seeing you suffer. I am afraid of being selfish for not wanting to see you suffer. I am afraid of crying my life away. I am afraid of letting you go. I am afraid of life without you.

I am afraid of my life right now. Everything’s out of control. I just cannot see where I’m walking. My heart is broken, but I can’t tell you this. I try to gather the pieces and start afresh but I can’t. The wind keeps blowing them away. Do you understand? My heart is broken and I am afraid, I am tired and can’t see through the fog, the tears.

My heart is broken.

But life is also good to me. I can’t understand, I don’t know what I have done to deserve so many people being good to me. How, like magic, everything is going my way. I say a word and the Universe gives me what I ask for.

But my heart, my heart is broken. That’s always been a problem, you know, though I never told you before. I’ve tried to harden up, to be brave, to stop the tears, I can’t. But I have to learn the lesson with you. I have to be strong, you mustn’t see me cry. I am learning, but it hurts.

You can’t hear me now. My words evaporate before they reach you. They disintegrate the moment I speak them.

But don’t be afraid. When you open your eyes I shall be there, standing next to you, holding your hand next to my heart.

 

Dónal Óg April 13, 2009

Filed under: Life, Loss, Love, melancholy, poetry — patriciadominguez @ 3:23 am
It is late last night the dog was speaking of you;
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a silver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird;
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness,
I sit down and I go through my trouble;
when I see the world and do not see my boy,
he that has an amber shade in his hair.

It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you;
the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday.
And myself on my knees reading the Passion;
and my two eyes giving love to you for ever.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you today,
or tomorrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

My heart is as black as the blackness of the sloe,
or as the black coal that is on the smith's forge;
or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls;
it was you that put that darkness over my life.

You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great that you have taken God from me!

 Anonymous
8th century Irish ballad
 

Lass of Aughrim April 13, 2009

Filed under: Loss, Love, Songs, music, poetry, tristeza — patriciadominguez @ 3:17 am
 

*** April 4, 2009

Filed under: Life, Loss, tears, tristeza — patriciadominguez @ 3:53 am

Is it any use to fight what life has decided?

Is it any use to question it?

Still overwhelmed by the irony of it all.

How one day life gives me what I wanted,

the next morning takes it all away.

 

You owe me nothing in return April 3, 2009

Filed under: Love, Songs, tristeza, truth — patriciadominguez @ 5:07 am

I’ll give you countless amounts of outright acceptance if you want it
I will give you encouragement to choose the path that you want if you need it
You can speak of anger and doubts your fears and freak outs and I’ll hold it
You can share your so-called shame filled accounts of times in your life and I won’t judge it
(and there are no strings attached to it)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have
I give you thanks for receiving it’s my privilege
And you owe me nothing in return

You can ask for space for yourself and only yourself and I’ll grant it
You can ask for freedom as well or time to travel and you’ll have it
You can ask to live by yourself or love someone else and I’ll support it
You can ask for anything you want anything at all and I’ll understand it
(and there are no strings attached to it)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have
I give you thanks for receiving it’s my privilege
And you owe me nothing in return

I bet you’re wondering when the next payback shoe will eventually drop
I bet you’re wondering when my conditional police will force you to cough up
I bet you wonder how far you have now danced you way back into debt
This is the only kind of love as I understand it that there really is

You can express your deepest of truths even if it means I’ll lose you and I’ll hear it
You can fall into the abyss on your way to your bliss I’ll empathize with
You can say that you have to skip town to chase your passion I’ll hear it
You can even hit rock bottom have a mid-life crisis and I’ll hold it
(and there are no strings attached)

You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have
I give you thanks for receiving it’s my privilege
And you owe me nothing in return.

 

Tales we tell ourselves: what we read March 23, 2009

Filed under: Life, books, narrative, reading, reflections, truth — patriciadominguez @ 4:40 am

We all tell ourselves a different story. A story that is told in pieces by the books we read.

Some people refuse to let their lives be led by or likened to fairy tales, but we all choose our own narrative through what we read (or choose to read): a story that our life has to become. A story that our life has been, maybe imposed on us, or we imagine it’s been imposed on us. And we go through life looking for the actors that will play the part. Characters who will praise us or vile us, so that we can be heroes or victims accordingly.

We strive so that our love story is the same. Or that it tells the same passion. The same scenes, the same sensations. So that someone speaks to us in the same way. Touches us in the same way.

So that what we live is already immortal. So that it has already been immortalised by a monument of words. By someone’s telling of a story that should be ours.

It is a lie we tell ourselves. It is a lie people tell themselves. A lie that guides in some way the course of our lives.

It defines the language we use. The way in which we speak. It shapes the way we look at the world. What we long for. What we accept and what we overlook.

I wonder sometimes could I have told myself a different story. Would I have told myself a different story? Am I who I am, would I, given the opportunity change anything of what I have done?

Sometimes I hate the story. Sometimes I enjoy it so much. Sometimes I’d love to rip off the pages. Sometimes I want to write my name on every page so that the world knows it’s me who’s writing.

And then I wonder, how could I possibly play a part in someone else’s story. Would this actress be fit for a role in another play? Of what sort?

Am I who you are looking for? I might not be the character you are expecting. We haven’t read the same books. We haven’t underlined the same lines. I have tried to find your echo in other people’s voices. My own echo is lost long time ago.

I am with no instructions. I am losing structure and I am losing the story I told myself. It works no longer. It is worn out. It can give me no more, I can grow no more. I am letting it go, no questions asked. It is still comfortable, but empty.

One step at a time. No instructions. Nothing written, nothing for granted. My eyes, my ears, my soul, my mind, all open and ready to receive the Great Beauty, Knowledge, Life. And the new story will be one of openness, hope, and the certainty that it is possible to change, to shed the old skin, to grow.

 

Die Rose March 23, 2009

Filed under: Love, Songs, flowers, german, music, poetry — patriciadominguez @ 4:07 am
 

Subir y bajar March 12, 2009

Filed under: Life, anger, control, destiny, melancholy, poetry, reflections — patriciadominguez @ 6:05 pm

No cabe duda de que debí preocuparme cuando subía y subía. Debí saber que iba a bajar. Sin embargo, no ha sido una caída estrepitosa y de hecho bajo poco a poco y por voluntad propia.

Me doy cuenta de que las ilusiones no valen la pena. Me doy cuenta de que la palabra ilusión es solamente parte de otra palabra: DESilusión.

A veces no puedo creer o no puedo entender cómo yo misma me tiro al abismo con pleno conocimiento de causa. No puedo alegar que yo no sabía lo que estaba haciendo, que hice las cosas sin darme cuenta porque nunca es así. Tanto en las buenas como en las  malas siempre soy responsable de lo que me pasa. O mejor dicho, las cosas no “me pasan”, yo hago que me pasen.

Ahora mismo me siento enojada, confundida y cansada de todo. Como si de vez en cuando la vida se encargara de recordarme que no debo confiarme, que las cosas que salieron bien fueron solamente un poco de suerte, quizá un respiro.

A mi alrededor la gente cree que soy alegre y optimista. Digo cree, pero mas bien es lo único que muestro y lo único que pueden ver de mí. Muchas veces también lo creo. Me gusta ser así y alegrarle la vida a los demás, aunque muchas veces corro el peligro de que me encasillen y se molesten cuando no puedo representar el papel que yo misma me atribuí. Creo que esto es la única desventaja, y lo que más duele, que la comprensión que uno trata de dar a los demás no venga de regreso. Supongo que a veces espero demasiado de los demás.

Justo ahora ni siquera sé que esperar. No sé qué esperar de mí, ni de las otras personas, ni de la vida. El impulso que sentía al comienzo del año se ha hecho más débil, ha ido deteniéndose. Quizá sea que siento que las metas que me fijé no están basadas en hechos reales, sino en el poder de mi imaginación, o que son castillos en el aire que en cualquier momento de desvanecerán, dejando caer todo lo que construí sobre ellos. Todo se resume en una palabra: MIEDO.

Justo ahora no tengo la más mínima intención de salir del agujero donde me encuentro. No puedo. La forma en la que me siento no tiene una explicación racional, no sé qué me pasa, y además de lo que traigo dentro han estado las cosas que vienen de fuera.

Problemas en casa, a lo cual ya debería estar acostumbrada, pero me recordaron, una vez más, que cualquier cosa que yo haga, por mucho que trabaje, por más que estudie y sea una persona responsable y madura, no importa. Mi esfuerzos son inútiles porque mi trabajo de 10 años es un juego, mi carrera es fácil (y por eso pude tener 3 empleos al mismo tiemo, estudiar dos idiomas, y tomar cursos de capacitación) y lo que yo hago no tiene valor y lo podría hacer cualquiera.

Por lo anterior, problemas en el trabajo. Y ni siquiera, más bien fue tristeza y coraje de que lo toquen, por que es lo único que tengo.

Y problemas en el corazón. Estoy enojada conmigo misma, estoy triste, confundida, no sé qué hacer, o para donde mirar. No puedo ni quiero mirar hacia atrás, hacia lo que decidí dejar atrás pero que sigue caminando junto a mí y que además me ayuda a sobrellevar lo que ahora sucede. Me dejo llevar, no pregunto nada, acepto lo que viene, y espero.

Cuando me sienta lista volveré a caminar una vez más.

 

The loved one always leaves March 9, 2009

Filed under: Life, Loss, melancholy, poetry — patriciadominguez @ 5:08 am

I must have left as well.

I must have walked out on people and things.

I know.

Sometimes it was my body,

sometimes my mind.

Life had to go on

Even if it meant something had to die.

Even if it meant and old version of me

had to die.

Movement

is resistance

is pain.

I know I left once.

twice, three times,

In the cruellest possible form.

Loving but having to look elsewhere.

It was not easy.

At all.

I walked away, without looking back.

Looking forward.

NEVER back.

I left once, twice, more.

I closed my eyes.

I covered my ears.

I walked on, and left part of who I was along the way.

I know the loved one always leaves.

What use is it to fight against it?

If immeasurable distance

and time go by, impenetrable.

Time does not destroy.

It covers everything in sand,

caking our eyelids, ears, mouth and heart

with the mud of abandonment.

Deserted,

inside and outside

it is hard to breathe,

hard to feel.

I know I left once

I left twice

I left it all.

************

The loved one always leaves.

Once, twice, every time

I close my eyes to remember

the wind in our face and the words we whispered,

I remember.

Remember the parting

steps we took.

The paths we followed.

My closing the door.

My letting you go.

I left as well…

The  loved one always leaves,

and the one who stays is thirsty,

walking the same desert streets again and again, and

moving through time and space

with no answer.

Is there a way back?

Is there a way forward that will bring us back?

Once, twice,

the loved one always leaves.

You should know.

 

What my tea said to me today March 9, 2009

Filed under: TEA, Words, advise, reflections, truth — patriciadominguez @ 1:28 am

In a cup of Chai Black I found these words today:

Inspiring others toward happiness brings you happiness.

 

Vida March 7, 2009

Filed under: Education, Life, fleeing, intelligence — patriciadominguez @ 5:39 am

Citando a Jackie:

“que valiente eres: anglo+maestria+delta+vida+gimnasio++blog+++++etc

=cómo le haces?”

Y digo yo: bueno, quitamos VIDA de la ecuación y tendremos una idea más clara de lo que sucederá conmigo. No creo que la extrañe mucho, I have never had a lot of it, anyway.

Por supuesto, el gimnasio también tendrá que irse, ya que me estaba gustando… y por supuesto, esto también ocasionará que alguien se infarte. Ni modo.

 

From I DREAM I AM AT THE GHAT OF THE ONLY WORLD March 2, 2009

Filed under: Agha Shahid Ali, Loss, Love, poetry — patriciadominguez @ 4:17 am

Weep, for this is farewell,

To be rowed forever is the last afterlife[.]

[...]

WEEPING? YOU MUST NOT. I ask, “Which world will bring her

back, or will he who wears his heart in his sleeve eaves-

drop always, in his inmost depths, on a cruel harbinger?”

[...]

THE LOVED ONE ALWAYS LEAVES.

by Agha Shahid Ali, from The Veiled Suite, 2009.

 

Sally’s Song March 2, 2009

Filed under: Belleza, Life, Loss, Love, Songs, melancholy, music — patriciadominguez @ 3:56 am
 

Accumulating grief March 1, 2009

Filed under: Life, Loss, Love, fleeing, memory, reflections, writing — patriciadominguez @ 1:42 am

I have the tendency to write in whatever piece of paper I find. A notebook, a loose sheet of paper, a newspaper even. Several times in my life I have started journals but haven’t been constant enough… procastrination has been a constant in my life…

From time to time I find those writing spaces (believe me, they can be almost anything) and one of several things happens: I don’t recognise what I read: “who wrote this?” is my thought and it doesn’t say anything to me anymore, or it has a different resonance to the one it probably had originally, or I simply don’t agree with it anymore or can’t understand. Or, I recognise it, acknowledge it, and… remember.

I don’t know why, I have always been obsessed with the preservation of memory, my memory. That is why I keep souvenirs of trips, of outings, of special moments. That is why I keep photographs (mostly in my mind) and that is why I write everything down. Especially in difficult moments of my life I choose to write, painstakingly, all that happens to me. Unlike the times when I write poetry, for example, what I write on those occasions is mostly facts and details. But I don’t need anything else. I succeed in portraying exactly what I was going through at the time and those vivid details trigger my mental frame, and emotions too. I found such thing today, and the feeling it awoke was very unpleasant. I read and I saw the same faces again, I retraced my steps.

I wonder if, instead of preservation of memory, what I’m doing is more self-torture. I understand that learning from the past is important to avoid making the same mistakes again in the future.   However, unfortunately, sometimes we learn more than just a life lesson, we learn the path to make other mistakes. From those experiences I have emerged a stronger person, but at the same time, more fearful. I don’t open up that easily. I don’t love that easily or, better put, I don’t give freely the love that I feel. I am afraid of an answer I don’t want to hear. I am afraid of pain once more.

I’m probably being unreasonable, I’m probably contradicting myself. Life experience is important for me. It is the testimony of my life on this planet, the lessons I have had to learn, the people and places I have loved and have had to forget about.

I don’t really know what the use of accumulating all that grief is. Is it that I can’t let go? I think not. But it is true I do believe that all those experiences have made me who I am now. Or perhaps I should not be so proud? For now I am sometimes too afraid, overcautious even and I dare not take any risks.

 

What I am: an answer February 26, 2009

Filed under: Don't suffer fools gladly, Love, anger, dreams, intelligence, poetry, reflections, women — patriciadominguez @ 4:44 am

I.

I am what I am.

Listen.

Your ears won’t hear me

****

I am what I am.

Though you would have me

pinned to a wall

like a butterfly in a glass case.

A woman should not move.

Should not want to fly.


II.

I am vulnerable,

I don’t show.

You see wilderness.

Both are mine, and mine alone.

I am fierceness,

to hide the softness away.

You see it

and think: I have defined her.

Yet

I am hard work  and labour.

This you see,

and accept it is my true value.

I am joy

and laughter, and ecstasy,

but my tears

have brought you discomfort before.

III.

You only see a tree in the forest.

Sometimes only a modest leaf.

I am the forest itself.

Darker, powerful.

I have fears. Fantasies.

I am light and desire.

***

Once I read:

“A woman’s heart is like a deep, deep well”.

And the hopes and the fears

I cannot share

crash into your walls

and like an echo they

come back distorted,

amplified.

Meaningless,

unfruitful.

You think we share in the loneliness.

You know me not.

IV.

For you

I should be a butterfly

fixed with a pin

to a glass case.

I haven’t been able to fulfill your dreams.

YOUR dreams.

Listen to yourself.

***

It is a waste of time to cultivate

soul and intellect.

When I should be striving to be captive.

One day like the one before.

***

I never quite understood

how pain could be perpetuated.

How can one wish pain

wish ignorance

and oblivion to another?

V.

My dreams are not yours.

Were things done on your terms?

Did love play a part?

Love’s the only answer I’d take from you.

Love’s the ultimate sacrifice.

It is worth it all.

VI.

Don’t try and make me live

the life that you chose for yourself.

Don’t try and live your life

through me.



 

My ABC February 25, 2009

Filed under: Belleza, Life, poetry — patriciadominguez @ 5:46 am

I stole this idea from Lady Cynthia’s blog, hehe

A-Allure, alchemy, absinthe

B-Blue (EVERYTHING blue)

C-Creativity

D-Depth, desire

E-East, enchantress

F-Flowers

G-Gratitude

H-Horizon

I-Intellect

J-Joy

K-Kiss

L-Laughter

M-Moon, my goddess

N-Night

O-Observing people round me

P-Poetry

Q-Questions to solve: life impulse

R-Rose

S-Stars, silver, a sorceress

T-Tree

U-Under that tree I have rested and dreamt

V-Veiled by the night, a dream of passion: my voice

W-Wisdom

X-The sound of a saXophone at night

Y-Youth eternal

Z-Zephyr gently blowing: a gift of nature

 

Valentine February 25, 2009

Filed under: Love, carol ann duffy, poetry, vegetables, women — patriciadominguez @ 4:08 am

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It’s a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears

like a lover.

It will make your reflection

a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

possessive and faithful

as we are,

for as long as we are.

Take it.

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,

if you like.

Lethal.

Its scent will cling to your fingers,

cling to your knife.

Carol Ann Duffy

 

English February 24, 2009

Filed under: Belleza, art, english, language, poetry, writing — patriciadominguez @ 5:41 am

Don’t ask:

my adopted language.

The one I feel comfortable with:

my life.

The paint with which I colour my feelings:

my landscape.

A long lasting love.

A colouring box, a tool box,

my fountain pen, my singing voice.

Don’t ask me why

I fell in love with the sounds,

I fell in love with its depth:

the illogical logics.

There is so much more than I could ever say.

Love is sweeter in English.

Life is swifter in English.

Don’t ask what life would be without it.

It is my weapon of choice.

It moves smoothly in my lips.

My tongue pushes it out in a river of wonder.

‘Tis a pleasure to swim in its waters

and feel them flow in a rush

round my body,

my ears, my head, my throat, my voice.

Don’t ask me why

if I could choose, all over again,

again a hundred and a thousand times

it would still be my own.