Friday, May 7, 2010



Originally uploaded by rosemary*

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Portuguese Sea by Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa

Salt-laden sea, how much of all your salt
Is tears of Portugal!
For us to cross you, how many sons have kept
Vigil in vain, and mothers wept!
Lived as old maids how many brides-to-be
Till death, that you might be ours, sea!

Was it worth? It is worth while, all,
If the soul is not small.
Whoever means to sail beyond the Cape
Must double sorrow - no escape.
Peril and abyss has God to the sea given
And yet made it the mirror of heaven

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Behind the Curtain by Coral Bracho

Behind the curtain there is a world of calm,
behind that thick green
is sanctuary,
profound hush.
An unsullied realm, its silence.
From that flowing vision
of another world,
from that other reality's diaspora of sounds; from that other time,
enmeshed, they are calling me.

A Woman's Portrait 1938 by Toeti Heraty


The painting conveys her exquisite taste:
ear studs, bracelets, green and yellow selendang;
the sash conceals her pregnancy.

The death she is carrying can’t be disguised.
The life she carries will grasp and cling on.
Yearning, restlessness and the turmoil of fear
are not recorded in the brush-strokes,
pencil outline of a face
surrendering to the flow of history.

The painting, with its final brilliant gesture,
only fully reveals this face
when it is framed by memory.

July 1989

Tuesday, March 2, 2010