Huracán

"With hurricanes it's not the wind or the noise or the water."
    - Victor Hernández Cruz, Problems with Hurricanes

We, abuela and I, watch the back porch and we know.
We know when the empty hammock dances.
We know when the tempo of cyclonic beats
join the crescendo of percussion - pla-pla-pla.
We know when the whispers come haunting
and the moisture on our skin hints of Yemaya.
We know when the scurry of tiny feet run,
snapping branches under the breeding of thunder and lighting.
We know when the high pitch of barrels interprets the pounding of raindrops.
We know.

Wax On Wax Off: New Enviro Surf Wax

The Surf at Sayulita.

As a surfer, it is your responsibility to be aware of your impact on the environment. It is every surfer’s obligation to protect and care for the place that gives us so much enjoyment. After all, without a healthy ocean ecosystem, surfing would be nonexistent.

The Whimsy of Book Titles: Take Two

Another look at poems created from book titles.

Who forgot time?
The boy?
No,
I think it was the backyard astronomer.

New York Rain

Warm summer night in New York City
Rain falling
Landing on my cheek
Foreshadowing the tears
That would be there tomorrow.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost First Novel, To Be Published For The First Time

Arthur Conan Doyle's first and until now unpublished novel, The Narrative of John Smith, is to be released by the British Library on 26 September 2011. The novel, written between 1883 and 1884, gives a fascinating insight into this early period of the author's creative development, only a few years before his creation of Sherlock Holmes would earn him an enduring place in the history of English literature.

First Lines Second Thoughts — The Bell Jar

First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works. On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry? Today we look at The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Published in 1963.

We Have Jazz

We have jazz we
have Caribbean drum beats we
have trumpets trombones from
Civil War military bands we

Moneyman #OccupyWallStreet

Hey Moneyman the crowd is outside.
The past, the future and the now is outside.
The teachers and cooks and the drop-outs too.
Word on the street is they looking for you…

The Whimsy of Book Titles

A contribution to the genre of poems from book titles.

Early poems
Songs of Innocence
and of Experience
In the Ward

Teresa the Moroccan Pirate Girl

(Intro: September 19 is Talk Like A Pirate Day. In honor of this momentous occasion we have another Bar None children tale to share along with our Melanie the Red-Haired Troll story from last Hallowe'en. Needless to say this tale is a pirate story. Reading a pirate story right means rolling your "R"s so they sound like "arrghs". Where there are no "R"s, rest, for there are sure to be more!)

Todos Somos Marcos

Detrás de nuestro rostro negro,
Detrás de nuestra voz armada,
Detrás de nuestro innombrable nombre,

World Book Night Top 100 Nominations Revealed

During the past two months, over 6000 book lovers have submitted their top ten favorite reads for consideration as part of the World Book Night Top 100.

Over 8000 different titles have been nominated in total, illustrating the diversity of the nation's reading tastes and with a constantly evolving top hundred as more and more readers contributed, have provided a fascinating snapshot of the UK's best loved reads.

The Wellness Renegade's Hangover Cure

Ugh! The dreaded hangover.

The splitting headache. The nausea and heartburn. The dizziness. The fatigue and mental fog. The body aches. The horrible sleep. Any extreme of light or sound can make you crazy. God-forbid you have to do anything productive or go to work.

My Shadow

Sayulita Shadows: Big Bird, Bridge, Bionic Man, Tattoo Louie

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The Day We Cried

Shafts of light reach heavenward
to where you both once stood
Again you take my breath away
Once more I shed a tear
Years have passed and yet you still
send shivers down my back

To Brooklyn Bridge

How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull's wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty—

Still, Without

I'm a singer without a mic
I'm a boxer when there's no fight
I'm a soldier without a gun
Still a shadow when there's no sun

Roman Holiday

For you have been given
a gentle place
of quiet pages
to rest your thoughts and ideas

Aspiring Poets Win $15 000 Scholarships

The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine announced the five recipients of 2011 Ruth Lilly Fellowships: Olivia Clare, T. Zachary Cotler, Farnoosh Fathi, Alison Seay, and Marcus Wicker. Among the largest awards offered to aspiring poets in the United States, the $15,000 scholarship prize is intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry.

Prosa del otoño en Gerona (II)

A stranger is thrown across the bed.

Throughout loveless scenes
(inert bodies, sadomasochistic objects, pills
and the scowls of the unemployed)
you arrive at a moment
which you call autumn
and you discover the stranger.