Shreds of a bizarre world
Here you won't find the pages of a pedantic journal, praises to fantastic places or accounts of memorable encounters. This is a collection of stories, thoughts, images, and most of all odd stuff, even though to someone else it might actually look ordinary. To discern its bizarre side, in fact, special filters are needed: cynicism, fussiness, stubbornness, isolation, impudence, nosiness and nerdiness. All flaws that, in different measure, this semi-nomadic being has got embedded in his genes.
Monday, October 21, 2024
The Palazzina is safe - St. Julian's, Malta
A stroll down the promenade
by St. Julian's bay,
from Spinola to Balluta
on a warm autumn day.
The sky is clear,
the wind is strong,
people in swimsuits
read books or doze off.
At Paradise Exiles,
a hip bar by the sea,
locals and foreigners
have snacks and cold drinks.
A sailor from here,
tattoos on dark skin,
with longing reveals,
while sipping beers,
that in two or three weeks
high waves and big rain
will gradually sweep
the magic away.
Labels:
architecture,
art nouveau,
autumn,
buildings,
english,
literature,
malta,
modernism,
poetry,
sea,
st.julian's,
weather
Saturday, October 19, 2024
The wild iris - Louise Glück
What might at first seem a sequence
of conversations of a mad voice
with singular, plural, material
and imagined listeners,
suddenly becomes clear
and beautiful as well,
when you finally understand
the underlining pattern.
The book starts when spring begins
and ends when summer finishes.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Combustion - Bangkok, Thailand
At six in the evening
as hell replaced heaven,
a skyscraper was scraped,
by the clouds up in flames.
Labels:
bangkok,
chaophraya,
english,
literature,
photography,
photos,
poetry,
river,
skyscraper,
sunsets,
Thailand
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
In praise of sincerity - Montesquieu
In this little book, as the title suggests, Montesquieu praises sincerity as a virtue. This is done at two different levels.
In private life sincerity is advised as opposed to indulgence. A real and useful friendship should always be based on absolute honesty, even when this leads to conflicts with personal pride, or especially when that happens.
Labels:
books,
french,
friendship,
leadership,
literature,
philosophy,
politics,
sincerity
Monday, October 14, 2024
On the passion of love - Blaise Pascal
In this short treaty, Blaise Pascal - who for the most part of his life worked as a scientist - expounds his views about love and passion. He tries to point out the relation of these feelings with all the other aspects of life.
Labels:
books,
french,
literature,
love,
mathematics,
passion,
philosophy,
physics,
science
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Nobel prize for literature awarded to Han Kang
Han Kang, a female Korean writer, was just awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. This is what I wrote down after reading some of her works a couple of years ago.
Convalescence, Human acts, The vegetarian - Han Kang
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
The spice-box of the earth - Leonard Cohen
As in Let us compare mythologies, in this collection Cohen also alternates Garcia Lorca's style inspired poems - assemblies of images, sounds and loosely connected symbols - and other compositions that can be more clearly paraphrased and literally interpreted, with an explicit message. Those of the second type might be slightly more numerous, while the style of the first batch is even more mature and inspiring than in the previous book.
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