Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
- Leonard Cohen
Tackling Haiku (More)
July 31, 2007
(2) 
The palm leaves outside
stiff and curled after a storm
graceless yet it sways
(3) 
I counted the stars
one pristine quiet evening
asleep in no time
(4) 
A single feather
fell and rested on my hair
after one gunshot
Tackling Haiku (1)
July 30, 2007Haiku #1
The shoreline recedes
While the sun shines unhindered
revealing sea gems
I wrote this haiku from a simple 2-paragraph reflection I wrote a year ago on a sketch pad. I said that:
"I have always been a lover of the beach, the ocean. Maybe not always for swimming, but for reflection. Whether it's sunny or drizzly, I won't mind really burying my toes to the sand as I watch the ocean tell me about life itself. About going away and leaving, as the shoreline recedes while it's vapor rushes up to the sun, on scorchydays….
…and about coming back, as the rain beats the seawater as they join again, on dark and stormy nights."
This haiku is suggestive of the many episodes of nature. Evaporation in science tells us how energy from the sun absorbs water from the oceans and other bodies of water. So on cloudless day, when the sun is tall or shines the brightest, the receding shoreline in the haiku acts as a curtain or a lifted skirt uncovering an ocean's many treasures and secrets. Imagine getting temporary glimpse of starfishes, mollusks, mussels and fragments of corals on bare sand. In another sense, an unobstructed sunlight, with it's glistening effect on the water, makes it become very transparent making it possible for even a boat rider to see through the water depths without getting down or diving into the water. So from that perspective, the sun illuminates a vast showcase of the ocean which includes a wide-spectrum of fishes, of seagrasses, corals and sea mammals. Sometimes, human droppings as well. Droppings as in dropped dolls, dropped shoe or cap. By this however, the first line of the haiku might not have a direct significance at all although it could be indicative of a hot, summer day that makes everything beneath the sea so clear to see. (more…)
Dissecting 1974
July 27, 2007 
It was a year not as landmark as the year a man first stepped on the moon or the year when 2 brothers flew the first airplane ever. It was just one of those fleeting years, when somebody won the Superbowl or the Wimbledon or the Emmy’s. If it could have yawned it’s way into 1975, it would, if only to check out whether another moment would smear a blot in history.
In that year where TIME picked out Richard Nixon’s resignation as one of the Great Events of the 20th Century, because, in Nixon’s own words, “America’s long national nightmare is over”, I sought for colors and interesting milestones. I wanted to hope that when the World Trade Center (world’s tallest buildig then) opened in New York that year, it would be as important as when people remember 9/11.
But people are more drawn to gossips than history. They remember more the most beautiful faces gracing the People magazine, than when that magazine began its distribution. And Barbara Walters, how can anyone not know Barbara Walters? But no one would care if told that she started out as a news-anchor of Today Show, one April in 1974. Or that year when the Beatles officially disbanded, the Loch Ness monster was first photographed, Yitzhak Rabin formed a new Israeli government or when the last Japanese guerilla operating in the Philippines, surrendered after 29 years.
Not much remember nor appreciate those timelines.
But I think my family would. Because 22 days before 1974 was ended, I was born. In a year peppered with unnecessary scandals, nuclear tests and few achievements, I believe that day in December was a landmark in my parents life…despite the fact that after 2 daughters, they wanted me to come out as a boy. Or despite the fact that they share that landmark with thousands of other parents. The parents of most of my classmates and of Leo di Caprio and of Christian Bale.
Welcome to my blog. In ballet, dancing en pointe is a step that requires considerable strength and skill in the act of rising to the tips of the toes while performing. In life, I want to adopt this philosophy. I want to be able to gather all efforts and skills and passion in dealing with uncertainties, failures, loves and triumphs and live life in my best poise possible. I want to roll ahead like that, En Pointe, until my hardest bones, dry up and hurt. So that when I die, I will not really mind, even if storms will weather my epitaph until it simply reads:
BORN: 1974.
