A SONG FOR THE PROFESSIONALS OF GUILT AND SIN

Thanks to the Spanish actor José Sacristán

Please listen to me,
gentlemen, far from gentle
excluding our women
abusing your mantle

in warning for sin
whilst spoiling our kin.

Remember the words
of a rabbi so lonely
who made us his children
but wasn`t a phony.

He asked only mercy
no sacrifice worthy.

Just leave your mistructions
ashamed of false powers;
please gentlemen
study
the movements
and beauty

of all that is simple
and constantly moving:

Life's love
in a flower.
.........................................................................................................................................................................
From 'Poetic lines, Torroella de Montgrí, 2003 by
Jan Arends who also made the photo of an Azucena

CARMEN REBORN

Your sunny laugh and busy fingers
are slowing down but sometimes lingers
a smile behind your pains and sorrow
spreading some hope for a tomorrow

When on a beach: what crystal thought!
the sun will shine and you'll be caught
by fresh and blinking lukewarm water:
that lovely girl is whom I fought for.

Those weeks of pain will disappear
clear, healing water bears your cheer
of joy and freedom, fresh and funny:
there swims my Carmen brown and sunny.

After those weeks have tumbled down
I'll see you in a fresh new gown.
That will protect your newborn life:
let's live that joy, my loving wife.

......................................................
From 'Poetic lines', Torroella de Montgrí, 2003
by Jan Arends who also made the photo of Carmen
and the parakeet in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

FLUFFS IN THE WIND

This picture of nature and the richness of its colours was made
near the Mediterranean Sea on the Costa Brava, that famous and
impressive Wild Coast


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Annechien Prey


We're but fluffs in the winds
of Eternity:
feeling love
from above
in our happy-to-be.

When the winds start to blow
from a freezing direction
a soul should remember
the sunshine's reflection.

How the flowers and trees
bow in stream from the North:
see their colours so sharp
and protected their course.

Playing fluffs in the wind
bringing hope, no despair:
an Eternity's hint ?

AN EXCEPCIONAL EX LIBRIS

From reading a book a new idea
(symbolized by a corn-ear)
can come up and become fertile


Ben Tomlow
designed this ex libris for me. It appears in many of my so beloved books and in also in other creative applications.


Ben was a colleague for some years.
He was a great typographic designer indeed.
Together we worked in a book publishing
company in Holland. His exquisite taste,
his patience in explaining alternatives
and his intense hate of vulgarity made him
one of the best colleagues I ever had.

He fought for his ideas and studied
in the evenings to make his work
every time more beautiful.

Thanks again, Ben, for so many lessons
in typographic beauty that you have given
to me.

MY MUSE IN MAJORCA...

Every now and then poetic lines arrive.
Some of those lines appeared in this blog.






Carmen enjoying a laughing lunch on the Island of Majorca.

Some simple lines for Carmen

My wife and my life
are two poems in one:
some lines and a life
in a love that we won.

AN ORANGE FLOATING IN THE SEA

Carmen and Roger swimming in the Mediterranean Sea
near the estuary of the Rio Ter in the summer of 2004

An orange floating in the Mediterranean Sea

There was an orange in the sea
I saw it, floating, dancing
and wondered if it came to me
or just was there for fancying.

An Eastern wind that moved the waves
brought it in my direction:
the foamy, salty water gave
a sunny-fine reflection.

I took my shoes off and my socks
and stepped into the waters:
the sandy beach was free of rocks
and laughed like sunny daughters.

It started leaving but came back,
I took it with both hands.
This tiny thing, an orange wreck
a hopeful sign in salty dance.

BEACH LIFE

My niece Marina Torres posing on the beach of La Gola
del Rio Ter with the Medas Islands on the background

.......................................................................................................................................

Beach life

The sea touches a sandy shore
where people who were young before
throw lines with bait of little fish
to get a big one out of this

Fantastic blue-green moving water:
my thoughts now wander to my daughter.
The rhyme and rhythm of these lines
take me away to other times

When we were younger: not so much
and with a strong and eager touch
enjoyed then every beam of sun
before the midday had begun.

We looked for shells, enriching food
that Carmen made so tastely good.
A neighbour's baby joined the meal
and I'm still happy when I feel

That all these good things on the shore
meant happiness: a simple door
that opens when your smile and mood
make you as human feel so good.

Maybe that fisherman's still trying
to get a big fish from the blue.
I put myself down without crying
and whispered softly: 'I love you'.

A SIGN OF LIFE

In Catalan this little red ball of beauty surrounded by green colours is called 'a galleran'.


It was waiting to be eternalized in a little height called 'Mas Pinell', very near the Mediterranean Sea.






A sign of life

I'm walking as a sign of life
whilst struggling in the wind:
I walk together with my wife
see flowerbeds that seem to hint

Towards a cloudy greyish sky
that covers and grows wild:
a story or a windy lie
told to a growing child.

Nature does tell me proper things
and plays with many darts.
Whatever in my body sings
is joy of life that starts