"Mi Cielito Lindo..."

A LITTLE POEM DOESN'T HURT!



My suegros are visiting us from New York. I like to have people visiting and staying with us, and my in-laws are the best! El abuelo is really good at teaching the kids discipline and manners, and my suegra is the best at cooking, they’re from Bolivia, so we get to eat really delicious South American food, mmm, yummy!
My suegro loves to watch old western movies, going for walks or reading. Looking for some books for him to read, I found this little old poetry book that I’ve forgotten I have.
This little book took me down memory lane, to the time in High School, when all that it matters to me was reading poetry and literature, and that was mainly because boys didn't look at me too much...I wonder why?... Oh yes, I was the nerd type, all complete with the big plastic eyeglasses, braces, pimples in my face and skinny as in oh-my-god-you're-really-thin, that was way back in the 80s; but I MUST say I have come a long way since then, I wear contacts now, ahem!.
Ok, back to poetry: In my last 3 years of High school I was mostly studying literature and the social sciences, so there was a lot of reading, memorizing and analyzing poems and stuff in those years. I still love poetry, but don’t ask me about modern, or contemporary poems, because I might know one or two, but no more than that; I think I've stayed at home to long, I can barely remember how to write my full name! I’m the kind of old-fashioned-poetry reader, I like the ones that have been written for decades, centuries, the classics that never fade. And I still remember a few strophes of some of them, yay!
So in honor of all those classic masterpieces of nuestra literatura, I would like to leave you this Friday with some famous and familiar verses from Antonio Machado’s "Proverbios y cantares XXIX", which is also part of the lyrics of one of the famous Joan Manuel Serrat's songs:

Caminante no hay camino.

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar

I think we should read a little more poetry from time to time, don't you think?
Have a great weekend everyone!

Monica A.