Alphabe Thursday … I is for Intelligence
Inteligência e ação
São as bases do poeta
Métrica, rime e oração
Que e origem correta
Tendo estas bases juntas
A poesia e completa
It would seem that; the ingredients are intelligence and action, then comes metre, rhyme and prayer
Mixed together the poem is complete.
Here I am in Brazil hoping that my family will help me with this translation … but domestic arrangements negate my desires … For instance; already we have had cocktails in a nearby bar and supper preparation, is it seems a little more demanding.
Also, we have an early start tomorrow so it it is a business as usual … even if I am a little happily drunk!
Wednesday’s woman … Maria Bethania
Wandering around the centre of Rio yesterday morning, we arrived at the Imperial Palace to see the exhibition to celebrate the 50 years of Maria Bethania, we found in the square nearby stretches of poems anchored to the ground with stones. Verses by poets such as Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Andrade, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Clarice Lispector and other authors influential to the Bahian singer.
The tribute fills several rooms on the first floor of the palace. Many works by artists, photographs, embroideries, ceramics, videos, paintings, installations from all corners of the country.
Weekly Photo Challenge
I had no difficulty with fulfilling this week’s challenge. This door, discovered me (here is a good place for an exclamation coma) in the favela; Morro de Babilonia where my daughter lives in Rio. The design is not unique in the area perhaps the work of the same artist or group. So it will be fun searching for other examples …
On Monday …
Arrived in Rio on time if not a little earlier than hoped to a joyous welcome. Although was the weather was unexpectedly cold; all is well and happy!
It is good to see the ‘children’ almost fully recovered from the accident and no longer on crutches. However ; for my son-in-law the long recovery, loss of earnings and 18 months unable to work has been difficult and psychologically crushing. So while he has kept busy, even published a book of short stories and as we say in England ‘kept up appearances ’
They have received compensation for the accident, that met some of the costs incurred and and some loss of income sadly, the damage done over and above will perhaps never be addressed. So he is left wondering how he can return to work and his profession (or any job) that had barely started as a recently recently graduated Social Worker, enter into the social and local economy that is vital to any man or woman without having to count the pennies or begging/asking for help.
I don’t pretend our visit will end or their troubles in some respects it might make make the situation worse. Although we are family, and our contribution to their well being is totally unconditioned, we still live in a culture where the man is seen to be strong and the provider.
So while I didn’t for this to be a supplication; it has become a wish that we look at the homeless people on the streets and there are more and more each day and wonder what caused their misfortune ; and why asking for help is considered unworthy and a sign of weakness … and worse begging!
So back to my stay in Rio and with the street theme .. I note that the street art in Babilonia has grown. For a while we had some ‘cleansed’ and corporate images to celebrate the Olympics; these have now faded or been ‘replaced’ …
Silent Sunday …
Here we go …
Today I go to Brazil; I have looked forward to this day since August last year when we returned home from our previous visit. Although we do not need to find our living costs we have to save each week find money to pay for flights which have risen over the last years. Nonetheless we found the money we are making another trip. I am so excited and have been counting the hours as we have got nearer to actually booking the taxi and our departure from Heathrow! So while all the bags are filled, I will find space for my tea in the hand luggage … I simply loath the tea that is served on the plane so I take a little selection of teas that I know will just need a cup of hot water,these will make the next 12 hours or so, bearable.
A snapshot from the Bodleian ….
Today, as if you didn’t know is my last day at work in the library before I go on holiday. It marks the end of a wonderful year. Lots of achievements and milestones reached both sides of the Atlantic that have outweighed any misadventure that might have occurred … and they did!
The last few hours are only to be painfully slow!
One of the highlights this week was a visit to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This will be documented fully when I return from Brazil.
It was a staff outing for a select bunch from the museum and special collections teams; so we could share some experiences and items not seen by the general public. For me this embroidered bible; (its age and provenance I cannot remember at the moment) was a joy and a nice snapshot!
Alphabe Thursday … G is for Glorias or gratitude
In my Dictionario Brasileiro de literatura de cordel the poem; G is for Glorias or gratitude
Glórias damos toda dia
A estás coisas divinas
Que deus envia aos poetas
Como as águas cristalinas
Que jorram com abundância
Das inesgotáveis minas
The poet suggests that when we are offer grateful prayers to the heaven, the god returns these glories like a constant fountain of crystal clear waters.
A comforting thought when we forget to acknowledge our inner strength, that we call upon daily whether or not we believe it comes from something outside or not!
I am the woman!
Today … 3 days before I go to Brazil, in any woman’s life is destined to be a wonderful trip. For me it is a culmination of a year’s planning with the all angst and delight of a mother separated from her child.
My blog grown from that abyss of emptiness felt in those days 4 years ago, holds no delight.
Today, I can think not to much of those Wednesday’s women wood engravers in this melange of mother-ness that I have tenderly smothered for the last two year … bit melodramatic? perhaps …
So I continue to celebrate the advent of my holiday with a memory from last year when my daughter and I attended our first taste of wood cutting in Rio … she has carried on to learn, I returned to my lino, wood engraving and my methods; but am looking forward to trying Brazilian ways again …. and even sharing mine developed over the last year!
Weekly Photo Challenge … My Muse
For me it is more who is my muse rather than what ? Although the answer is connected. I have written much about my dad; who was a craftsman of integrity and diligence and how he encouraged me as a little girl to draw and be creative. Sadly, when I was twelve years old, he left me and my siblings with our mother. I cannot remember how I coped with the separation .. but can still feel the grief.
As an adult I can understand why he left (it was complicated) however, no matter how I try the little girl cannot forgive him for leaving us in a vulnerable and unstable situation without the aforementioned diligence and integrity he showed in other areas of his being.
He is dead now; and the little girl still yearns to make things better and bring him home … even if it is to say ‘ Look, Dad this is what I made and it is for you!’
So for the most part I call upon the strength of that 12 year old, she too a powerful muse, who just got on with life without a dad and successfully; but then when I need a creative push I wonder what he would say
‘Just draw … anything … that cup … Nipper’
This is not a cup … but the result of one of those ‘conversations’ …
Coat Hanger Doll's House 