Sunday, September 14, 2008

(in) alice's pain








.

suicide watch
is an intensive monitoring process used to ensure that an individual does not commit suicide.

.








..





i was sitting close to her, a seat between us, my hand reaching past it, over her shoulder, cuddling her till where my fingers could reach, wanting almost to go through her skin and reach inside, deep where the voices i could not hear shouted at her, voices no one could imagine, voices that would deafen her speech and mute her hearing;
and so the touch, the attempt of the touch, the touch desperate to reach inside, inside until my hands covered the mouth of those unfair and lying voices that pushed that firey-alice into the deepest hole in her,
away from everything,
from everyone,
away from everything that is
life
in life.



















" you see..




i wasn't supposed to be alive by friday......"
























she said it in a whisper,

knowing what is certain,

with no path to return.






















and i had vertigo of her planned death.



































...








she spoke through the crying that torn her breathing apart,
as if nothing left inside but the black of all her immense colours, that darkness of sharpened knives and swallowed pills
that lingered across years of injustice, hidden love, discouragement.


and i thought
i thought
that it isn't fair.


the scales becoming more and more uneven
everyday
without us knowing,
without us knowing the weight of every hour.

the weight of not recognizing oneself.

of losing
everything
one is.



so tempting, just letting go.....












before my eyes she fell, and i knew she fell with her eyes closed, clenched as fists, and thus let herself go, not speaking to anyone, not even looking at us anymore, nothing of her but that little girl's body abandoned by herself and that quiet, chocking, painful cry,
that contaminated my blood with sadness and anger.


unthinkable not to hold the hands of one who carries in them their own present and raise them until they see, know, feel everything that is, can be, always, everyday, every minute, still, always, life.


i wanted to shake her and say stop, stop the voices, stop everything that's tormenting you, dive out of yourself if you need to because we'll catch you,
we will catch you,
just don't go.
not like this.
not before so much of you.


but she was just a little girl, curled up in herself,
tiny tiny,
tiny with fear and so grown up with pain...



scared to break her, almost...
as if a bird with broken wings.

with nowhere to fly to.

but,
still,
each moment...

the healing.

every
single
little
moment...

now.





in the quietness of the night, she slept as one who surrenders to the rest of the arms of a home, a friend, a shelter.

in the tender light of day she held my hand and took me through her labyrinth of trees, all tangled in rusty knots of dark memories and flowers left to die by their own negligence,
and through the mist of fear i could see she looked this way.
at us.
inside.
from the distance.
she looked.


and we had to make her see.




so we told her of the lights that brighten the day,
the candles that go out so that it can come,
the night that rests, tranquilizes, pacifies...


let it come, peaceful.

and may the day be gentle on you..
everyday.

..


let it.











what we think is only that,


a thought we allow to be.







life at its full is a sunset




a hand held in the dark




the sea.














..










(image by john tenniel)

Friday, August 15, 2008

(my) country of people and sea










" Everything chains me to the land I gave myself in:
the suddenly teenager river,
the light tripping on the corners,
the sands where I impatiently burnt.


Everything chains me with the same sad love
that is knowing life doesn't last long,
and in it I put hope and the warmth
of some fingers with remains of tenderness.


They say there are other skies and other moons
and other eyes deep with joy,
but I belong to these houses, these streets,
this love dripping melancholy. "


(eugénio de andrade, canção breve)

















...











i see the way.





i know it complete, and i know where it leads.



to which sea of land and people of my own.








fear of shame?


shame of fear?






the same cold shiver going into the sea
- my whole life in suspended desire
for the awaited time of this dive of me.





more than queens and princes
i bring in my suitcase the fairies that know my wings
in certainty, dignity of just being.



i am all those i buried,
all those that were born inside
- tattooed seeds of constant change of tide.








.










i hear (myself) in the wind.


as if mine the name that someone.



as if calling dream to a life
that no one else
no one else
has.
























...














right now,

faraway and close,

i try humbleness:














i live.
















.
















(first picture: ana nicolau, selfportrait2007
second picture: eduardo gageiro
third picture: haleh bryan, dani-blue)



Friday, August 1, 2008

" through the looking-glass "








" i know who i was when i got up this morning,
but i think i must have been changed several times since then. "




(lewis carroll, alice's adventures in wonderland)






...













" The child closes her eyes on the wall
She counts the time her friends take
To transform

She closes her eyes inside the numbers
Looks inside and around and finds
Herself
The child asks whether to meet herself

She wants to find her friends, she wants
To be answered. She calculates the loud voice
The height of the wall, the progression of silence. "


(daniel faria)






..




ruela, "inaseashell"
















(...)



if you knew that love can break your heart
when you're down so low you cannot fall
would you change?

would you change?






how bad, how good does it need to get?

how many losses? how much regret?

what chain reaction would cause an effect?

[that] makes you turn around,

[that] makes you try to explain,

[that] makes you forgive and forget,

[that] makes you change?









makes you change














if you knew that you would be alone,
knowing right, being wrong,
would you change?

would you change?











if you knew that you would find a truth
that brings up pain that can't be soothed,
would you change?

would you change?






how bad, how good does it need to get?

how many losses? how much regret?

what chain reaction would cause an effect?

[that] makes you turn around,

[that] makes you try to explain,

[that] makes you forgive and forget,

[that] makes you change?









makes you change















are you so upright you can't be bent
if it comes to blows?


are you so sure you won't be crawling?


if not for the good, why risk falling?


why risk falling?











if everything you think you know
makes your life unbearable,
would you change?

would you change?










if you'd broken every rule and vow,
and hard times come to bring you down,
would you change?

would you change?





(...)









the end is not near, haleh bryan





















(first image: sue blackwell, alice through the looking glass
fifth image: thespeak, thinking
ninth image: lachlan humphreys, change
all other images: haleh bryan
song&lyrics: tracy chapman, change)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

self-reminder (in advance)










" paston common, 5.maio.08 - "free balance"



i brought myself here.
it's seven, almost seven years already, of emotions that confuse, comfort, feel safe, confuse, take forward, carry, frighten, feel safe, confuse, feel safe, confuse.
that have brought me here, in me. as the will for more.


.




it's stunning, this life i now live.
of believing, knowing, all that. that i am happy. i am (already) happy. for so much and more. for all that is in me.



(it's beautiful here, this moment in time.
as i close my eyes, the birds lull me to the truth in me:
i am part of nature.
i
am the birds.
i am the trees.
i am the sea.)




i live the life that i know.
the one i brought myself.

i open my eyes, conquer and receive in me
all that, through my will, is mine to be. "












..








(first image:do you believe it in your head, by michael vesen
second image: integration of the soul.
by an unknown artist, sadly...)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

(in (between) life and dreams)








" so runs my dream, but what am i?

an infant crying in the night

an infant crying for the light

and with no language but a cry. "



(from the poem "in memoriam a.h.h.", by alfred lord tennyson)






































...








i keep imprisoned
chocked with the memories' mourning

the franked weight of a sick life
- all that unreality
of your final moments
































...









i miss you.











i am chocked

with never more.





















(first image: youth mourning, george clausen
second image:death in the the sickroom, edvard munch)


Sunday, April 6, 2008

(in) discovery






" i wonder if i've been changed in the night?
let me think. was i the same when i got up this morning?
i almost think i can remember feeling a little different.
but if i'm not the same, the next question is
'who in the world am i?'
ah, that's the great puzzle!
"

(lewis carroll, alice's adventures in wonderland)


















..






i slow down the time.

my body forces me to look at my soul.






i look at what i am

with open eyes.





i won't spend
lose
(any)more
time
forgetting,
when forgetting
will bring me nothing.


despite the pain of going
without leaving a box,
some water,
a glass globe.







i smile at life.


to all that, in it,
is truth
and justice.




i remember what i want.

what i love.



and i move on.



never_the_less.


slowly.


without running.


without running anymore.



without running
unless i want to feel on my body
the wind that brings me life
and soul
and sea.



knowing,
alone
and deep down,
that when i fly
there is so much,
so much lulling me...









































...












" 'everything's got a moral, if only you can find it'.
and she squeezed herself up closer to alice's side as she spoke. "


(lewis carroll, alice's adventures in wonderland)





(first image: day will come, by haleh bryan
last image by gundega dege)

Sunday, March 2, 2008

break(ing)
































i delayed him in our hug, back then.

there were numerous days of distance between us, lives we lived apart, all the things we didn't share, the pains, the walls, the joys, the victories, missing what we once were, the pride-sometimes-shame of what we became, what we are in this present of one more day.

the one today.

where i shape my departure from you.

















(when dream is gone, haleh bryan)










it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

if you don't know by now



an' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

it'll never do somehow






when your rooster crows at the break of dawn

look out your window and i'll be gone



you're the reason i'm trav'lin' on











...











don't think twice, it's all right
































it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

that light i never knowed



an' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

i'm on the dark side of the road






i wish there was somethin' you would do or say

to try and make me change my mind and stay



we never did too much talkin' anyway











...











so don't think twice, it's all right
















i pack the life i was here to open it somewhere else, in another space, my own, where i'll live with open doors, letting in the air and the others, the music that reaches the silence within, that makes it sing, gently wakes me up, sets me free, slowly returns me to the feeling inside.

































...







on that other part of me, i still hold on to what i don't have or know.





and i don't
ever
let you die in my dreams.







..







you only die in this everything
this life
this being
of every instant.































you die in me



only



everyday.
























...









it ain't no use in callin' out my name, boy

like you never done before



it ain't no use in callin' out my name, boy

i can't hear you any more






i'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' walkin' down the road

i once loved a man, a child i'm told



i gave him my heart but he wanted my soul











...











don't think twice, it's all right




































so long,


honey babe


















where i'm bound, i can't tell


















goodbye's too good a word, babe


















so i'll just say fare thee well


















i ain't sayin' you treated me unkind

you could have done better but i don't mind



you just kinda wasted my precious time











...











but don't think twice, it's all right

















.












(aditional images by cig harvey, katia chausheva and noronha da costa
poem: adaptation of
don't think twice, it's all right, by bob dylan)