“If you are a writer, you must write.”
– Nicole Gulotta of Eat This Poem.
Write what?
I don’t have an English degree to flaunt, no books with my name on the cover, and no collection of essays published for the world to judge. Yet the urge to write persists—natural and unavoidable, like a fish that knows how to swim or a butterfly that learns to fly after leaving its cocoon.
Notes on scraps of paper, quotes on sticky notes, half-finished documents saved in folders—these are my practice. I take ideas that begin as thought and shape them into words, putting them down in writing rather than merely speaking them aloud.
For a while I wrote poetry casually, as a pastime, not something I devoted a lot of time or attention to. After a long pause, inspiration has returned, bright and insistent.
Finally, after a very long hiatus, my inspiration has been ignited again.
The poem “I wish for you a thousand suns” is dedicated to someone I love deeply. It expresses the warmest hopes I hold for that person.
***
The only thing harder than watching someone you love slip into despair is experiencing that fall yourself.
It’s painful to see another person’s hopes crushed and to witness them give up. It’s equally devastating when your own dreams collapse, leaving you empty of longing for a better tomorrow.
Having watched from the sidelines, I can only imagine how much harder it must be to be in that place yourself.
This is the first poem I’ve written in years, and I offer it to you because you were my inspiration.
***
I wish for you a thousand suns.
I wish for you a thousand suns
(Buenos Aires, February 28, 2013)
I wish for you bright sunshine days
and a lifetime of contagious laughter.
I wish for you easy joy
and a happy ever after.
I wish for you a tendency
to look on the bright side,
the way our hair naturally parts
to the left or to the right.
I wish for you a troop of angels
to guide your every step—
people who won’t let you down,
who won’t make you sigh or frown.
I wish for you mornings that wake
to happy, beautiful tunes,
and that strangers yield to you
in long and winding queues.
I wish for you a thousand suns
to light your darkest nights,
so when you wake up in the morning
your eyes will shine like small bright lights.
I wish for you to recognize the beauty
within your life and soul,
and to live so fully
that your joy spills over like an overflowing bowl.