Su Majestad and our path

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I’ve been spending some time today and yesterday with Claribel Alegría (Poet and Writer, Born in Estelí, Nicaragua) and with Erick Flakoll Alegría (Filmmaker). I was born in the same city many years later. (Parallel universe we called it).

This just had to confirm again that something is going on in heaven about my own path as a writer and poet. She called me just that same day I was reading one of her beautiful poems -by the way you can find it in the book “Puertas Abiertas” -Antología de Poesía Centroaméricana--. She told me that there is not such thing as random. There are only causalities, so look for your own path in there, she said. She autograph the book that I just mention above, "with great sympathy and a big hug", she wrote. I did mention to her how I got it from a friend of mine who is a new writer just to be discovered. She then smile at me and said: I hope you (meaning you and your friends) this new generation will be ready to start your own poetry, I’m 88 years old and still writing, but I hope my last words can start a “spark” on you. I told her: “you already did so”.  Her studio is a nine meters square room full of books, music, memories, photos, little sculptures from all over the world and of course she uses the latest state of the art technology to continue writing and reading. She uses many software than for many of us are still in the bookshelf. She likes to read every single e-mail in her inbox and likes to take notes so she won’t forget things around. She also loves playing with the crossword on the newspaper. She speaks and read different languages but she prefers everything in Spanish. Her husband used to be an English speaker poet and writer, a gringo she said, but a nice one. At some point into our conversation I did mention to her that those friends who still don’t call themselves poets sooner or later they would, but the most important thing is that they are already writing in different universes (Universo Recargado). I even told her how we being playing doing duos and trios. She smiles again and said to me: “I did it in the past and it is wonderful what you can come out with that simple strategy. I used to send the first verse and let them know that is ok to continue”. We talked about so many things: “orthography, calligraphy, methods to write, family, Estelí –the city we share as point of birth-, her new book and how frustrated is to repairs things in the middle of a work and of course we talked about her computer”.  She believes in books in paper (hard copy), they share a vision of the world without fossils source of energy similar to the one describe by Al Gore. I said to myself this is not a coincidence her name had been in the air for many days. Then she finally said to me, thanks for coming over and for your energy to fix things around. And I promise to you that as soon as I finish reading the material of the Dominican Republic Poetry Contest I’ll go over your blog. So you better start updating it. God, I’m in trouble now! This is serious staff and I need my friends help to keep it focus. Let’s see what we can do to take care of “Su Majestad”.

Managua, April, 21st, 2012.