Headline Poem 4/17/14 -- A Writer's Life

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Photo credit The Guardian)

Today's poem is dedicated to the amazing writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez who passed away at the age of 87. Here is a New York Times headline about his passing. His life was a little piece of magic.

A Writer's Life

The dust will always settle
and then unsettle, stirred up
only to be calmed down.
We forget that.
We forget that silence co-exists with rage,
that anger haunts us before the grave.

We pretend that silence is unrecognizable,
and that fear is predictable.
We let the bitter root trample itself,
lost, and out of control,
only to spin in numbers
higher than we know.

Enemies will trudge through small villages,
rummaging in and out,
disrespecting and swirling,
while you try to play along,
trying to keep up with the chaos,
you will watch them destroy your home.
We deserve it, you will say!
They can take what they want, away!

Then, it ends.
You are caught,
standing with your mouth agape,
in shock.
You reveal it all, purging your deepest
regions,
grateful to have it known.
Acceptance.
Peace can return.
Love can come back.
If you let it.
If you want that.

Protection can gain all of its strength,
letting you know how to guard against it.
Next time.
He writes on.
The next times are never the same.
First it is this.
Next it is that,
never the same from this time to that.

Here are the tools to sound the alarm,
sketch them out,
and write them down,
armed with your pen,
or keyboard,
depending on your style,
how you get it out really doesn't matter.
Just get it out.

Do not wait for the flames to destroy
the magic and laughs.
Smile at protection, your long-lost friend.
Welcome back vision, oh how how you've missed clarity.
Have dinner with faith, you were both so hungry.
Sit on the couch, with truth and tranquility.

Let the story write its own plot,
with invading outsiders,
armed with darts...
let them throw them,
you know how to duck,
you have been trained to run
when stuck.

A writer's life is full of wisdom,
sometimes written before lived,
and sometimes lived before written.
Words will leave them fools,
cursed with writers' rules --
of creation and destruction,
the power to rebuild and repeat.
Your arm will be tired.
Your heart will feel raped.
You'll curse the vulnerable and broken snake.

Aha! You've reached the core.
The part that hurts.
The internal war.
That is the moment you are
ready to share.
That is the moment that ties you to foes
and to lovers, to the life of yourself,
and of others.
Empathy.
Compassion.
You are dedicated to both.
Committed to the crazy,
married to the love.


A few quotes by GGM: 

"Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry."

"All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret."

"The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love."

"Age isn’t how old you are but how old you feel."

"He who awaits much can expect little."

"There is always something left to love."

"A true friend is the one who holds your hand and touches your heart."

"No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you’ve already had."

"Be calm. God awaits you at the door."

"Nothing in this world was more difficult than love."

"It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment."

"A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth."

"Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest."

"The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good."