Today we started a new course at GCE: Global Rhythm And Poetry, aka Global RAP.
This course could not have started in a more opportune time to me: I have just returned from Lisbon, Portugal, where I researched the manuscripts of a Portuguese poet for a few weeks; on the way to Lisbon flying from Chicago through Paris, I got stuck on a snow storm and all flights got cancelled. I was suddenly stuck in a French speaking country; after the research in Portugal, I welcomed the New Year in Spain.
3 weeks, 3 languages: French, Portuguese, Spanish.
Now back to English.
Actually, the Portuguese poet I researched used to write in all these four languages and, as homage to him, please let me share 4 poems in four different media, to salute the New Year and the new GCE Course!
1. In France, stuck in Paris reciting Mallarmé:
2. In Spain, composing a love poem:
Soneto Amador
Las uvas aman las bocas moradas,
Las bocas aman las orejas pares,
Las orejas aman los huracanes,
Los huracanes aman las casas largas,
Las casas largas aman bailaoras,
Las bailaoras aman el imposible,
El imposible ama cuando sonríes,
Y tus sonrisas aman una aurora.
Ahora: mi corazón ama todo
cuando sonríes una casa larga
y auroras imposibles bailaoras;
Y todo que eres ama mi palabra:
es huracán en mi oreja tu soplo:
besas todas las uvas de mi boca.
3. In Portugal, taking a picture of a tree that is like a poem:
4. In Portugal again, finding an unpublished English sonnet of Pessoa:
